By: Rae Arnett
With graduation rapidly approaching, my family has been full of advice on what my next steps need to be.
My oldest brother believes you should find a job, make it your career, and stay with it.
My mother is an adamant believer in being in a place you want to be. Don’t like New Mexico? Then move to another state you like better. Maybe you would just rather be in a different town? Look for jobs there!
But my father has the best advice.
“Your 20’s are for looking. Your 30’s are for building,” said my father, Mark Arnett, “Don’t get too caught up in where you think you need to be, you’ll get there all the same”.
I like his advice the best. Maybe because at nearly 25 years old I still have not found that career that makes my heart sing, and that is not from a lack of trying.
Campaigning, insurance, human resources, journalism, and advertising are just a few of the careers I have “dipped my toes” into. Yet none of them have sent me over the moon.
“Your 20s really are the time to explore… before you get married and before you have kids, you don’t have a lot of financial responsibilities,” said Jean Chatzky, financial editor of NBC’s “Today” show, in 2014.
I have been exploring, as we all should be. There are not going to be an abundance of times in your life when you will have less responsibility than you do right now.
Maybe you are worried about those student loan payments rapidly approaching. Maybe you have a car payment or even something as small as a cell phone bill. I’m not saying you do not have responsibilities today, but that cell phone bill will later be accompanied by health care, mortgage, or children.
So apply for that dream job. Take the chances you have always wanted to. Pick a hobby you have always wanted to try (life without homework creates a lot more free time!). Do what YOU want to do!
It’s time to spread your wings and find out who and what you have always wanted to be; what you are meant to be.
So here’s to Eastern New Mexico University; thank you to all the professors for the knowledge you diligently imparted upon us, for pushing us outside our comfort zones, and for helping us grow.
Here’s to all the friends we made along the way who made the college experience even better.
And here’s to all of the graduates; May you find your passion and pursue it endlessly.
In the wise words of Oprah Winfrey:
“Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do”.
