Unfortunately, coming out of high school I was extremely naive. I was more inclined to focus my attention towards recreational activities, friends, and the excitement that I was finished with my high school years and was now moving towards another important chapter in my life, college. I made the mistake of not realizing the impact my choices were going to have on my future career, during my college years. However it may seem, I began to accumulate more self awareness to this matter as my college years progressed, and in time, many of my choices transformed towards ones I felt yielded benevolent consequences for managing the risk of my future income.
Both my parents had not finished college and I am the oldest child, but nonetheless, my father harped consistently that my choices during these years of my life would hold more weight than any decision I have made to this point. My father was a huge reason that my choices began to change for the better. He emphasized constantly how sometimes I must do what I have to do, regardless of whether I really want to do it or not, in order to secure the comfort of my future. Because of this, I decided to pick up another major. I felt this choice would, hopefully, make myself more marketable come the time I was in search of my future career path. My father himself tried to assist me in managing my future income risk by paying for my education. This way I would hold no debt after graduation.
As I began to mature through my years here at the University of Illinois, I began to appreciate the actions of my father. I learned hard he had to work to do what he did for me, and because of this felt that it was now time to mature, and focus more of my decisions towards the perceived outcome of my future. As a result, I began to get more involved in school and other activities around campus. I became indulged in anything that would buffer my resume, and increase the skills needed to push my level of human capital farther than those around me. I felt these actions would facilitate myself in finding a more suitable and lucrative career.
As I mentioned previously, many of my actions were not geared towards future income risk. During my early educational career, here at the University of Illinois, I made a majority of my academic choices solely because they seemed more reasonable at the current time.. The most glaring example of my carelessness, was my choice for my major. I have always loved to lift and be active, because of this I first thought I wanted to pursue Kinesiology as my major. I loved the idea, and knew that I would be more motivated to push myself in this subject matter than in any other curriculum offered here on campus. That alone would have been an action towards alleviating future income risk, because my drive towards that subject would have spurred me to do better throughout every facet of college. In spite of all this, I chose Psychology as my first major, simply, for what I feel now were silly reasons, because I was strongly against some of the pre-requisites of Kinesiology. As a result, I felt Psychology was a better fit, and chose to roll with that as my first major.
Deep down I knew I wanted my future to be in Kinesiology, but at that point in time I selected my major, I wasn't exactly sure what I really wanted. Because of this, I made a poor decision that I see now inflicting a negative impact on my future career. In order to soften the blow, I chose to pick up a second major in Economics. I was more interested in Economics than I was Psychology. Economics seemed more useful to me and my future career choices. For once I made the right choice towards managing future income risk. At this point in my life, my interest towards performing well in college was first in foremost, since I knew that this major was my second chance to ensure a better income for my future. I knew this choice would make me better off for years to come. Unfortunately during my teenage years I was among the immature demographic that was too naive to understand the implication of managing future income risk. I was more focused on making present choices just because they seemed to be good choices at the time. Luckily, I realized the importance of managing future risk, and from then on out, all options.
I am also double majoring in Psychology and Economics. I think both of these two majors are cool and interesting. I believe the background of these two areas is important for many future careers.
ReplyDeleteIt is always good to realize the importance of managing future income risks at earlier stages in our life; therefore, we can manage our lives in better ways and making right decisions. Although I feel kinesiology is a cool field, I do feel your current decision might lead you to better future.
I wholeheartedly agree, both of these majors are extremely interesting, and I do often get excited when looking at the subject matter. I also do agree that both majors provide one the experience to do well post-graduation. I guess, even though I made the decision that I thought was good at the time, I unknowingly provided income security for myself since both majors complement each other very well. Offering different understandings to the social and financial domains of the world we live in.
ReplyDeleteI do understand that I should have realized the importance of managing future income risk at an earlier stage, and what I gather from your post is you understood this far before I did. Although the two majors themselves offer a substantial amount of human capital, what I was getting at in my post was that my passion lied in another area of expertise, and I felt that passion alone would spur me to pursue a more deepened understanding of the material. This in turn, would allow me to be more competitive in the job market relative to kinesiology.
There is an interesting issue here about what becomes a career focus and what becomes an important hobby as a leisure pursuit. The college years can be useful in sorting that out. Sometimes, the gain in self-awareness is more valuable than the gain in human capital from preparing hard at the get go, but in a field that might ultimately not be to your liking.
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