For the ones who don't know, I'm studying for being an English teacher in High school level (English as a foreign language), but my dream wasn't that
in the beggining.
I have had many dreams during all my life; when I was a kid, I wanted to be a hairdresser and have my own beauty salon. After that, I wanted to be a doctor (like many other little girls in the world), but then I realized I was afraid of seeing blood and body organs, so I threw away that idea. As I grew older, I also wanted to be an actress, a singer, a chef, a writer, a vet, a professional cheerlader, a song writer, an astronomer, a militar, a filmmaker, a screenwriter, a psychologist, a vocational counselor, an ophthalmologist, a writer, a designer, a journalist, a waitress, a starbucks partner, a writer, an illustrator, a writer, a writer and yes, a writer.
You must been wondering how did I end up in such a career as English Pedagogy, when that option never appeared in the list above? Well, I will explain it to you with an easy word: Money.
I am the oldest child of my parents and behind me there are my two siblings, who eventually will have to choose a career for them. Right now, my family is fine in terms of money, but that doesn't mean that my father (not my mother because she doesn't have a job) can pay for three different careers. Apart from that, by the time I had to choose my university career, I won a scholarship to study the pedagogy I wanted. The only thing I had to do was finishing the career in four years (that means NOT failing any class), and after having my degree I would have to pay my scholarship working for three years in any public school of my country.
Of course that my dreams of being a writer and studying Creative Literature went to the garbage when my parents considered this new options of free studies. They told me that it didn't matter if I didn't want to be a teacher, because the degree I would eventually have, would be enough for me to be whatever I wanted to be in the near future.
I didn't want to be a teacher then, but anyway, I knew that studying for free was the best option to choose because I didn't want my parents to spend a lot of money in my education, so I said yes.
And now I am here, in my third year of English pedagogy, and I still don't want to be a teacher.
So, how do I overcome this exhausting frustration I feel almost every day while I go to University?
Nothing.
Ok, I know that you read everything until here because you want to know how to feel happier and less stress in your careers (or in your jobs), but let me tell you that just YOU have the answer key for that.
Therefore, I can't tell you exactly what would fit for your life, but I can tell you what I am trying to do right now to overcome this feeling of regret that I have when I think that I should have chosen another career, one that would help me to achieve my dream of being a writer. So here are some tips:
1. Think about the good things that doing this major brought to your life. In my case I won more secury to talk in front of people, I am also less shy than I used to be in school. Despite that, I met some really cool friends and someone special; I met the boy who is now my boyfriend, my first boyfriend and my future husband.
2. Try to understand that, although you don't want to become in someone who works in the career you are studying, the things you have studied and the knowlegde you have acquired, somehow are now part of you and you can use all of that for your real dream job. For example, my improved English skills are know helping me to write this entire thing; As I am a native speaker of Spanish I should have been writing this in my native language, but I'm not. I chose to write in English and I wouldn't been doing this without all the grammar and text & use classes that I had.
3. Everything you are doing now, is going to be part of your experience tomorrow. With this I am saying that keeping yourself thinking about your dreams and the goals you want to achieve is fundamental to finish the things you are not enjoying at this moment. I always try to use the plans and ideas I have for my future as a final prize; I try to pass all the stages thinking about my dreams, knowing that when I finish my degree, I will have a lot of time to do the things I really want to do, like buying my own house, marrying my boyfriend, having children...
And being a writer.
