Are you upset about your current life situation? Not sure about your passion in life? In need of a change of a different life path? Then I believe you arrived at the right place and at the right time. In this article, I will tell you the steps I made to learn my passion and purpose in life and give you tips on how you can find yours.
When I was very young, I had a thing for pencils, paper, and doodling. I was four years old, and I didn't know this would soon become a passion of mines. I just knew that I enjoyed participating in that activity and I felt relaxed while doing it. I didn't realize that I could make my passion for writing into a real career until I graduated high school. Once I graduated twelfth grade, I decided to take my writing more seriously. I started to write different types of poems, and I wrote one short story for a class project.
During the month of September of that year, I enrolled in my local community college to major in journalism. I had high hopes that this degree would lead me to a great life as a writer, but listening to my family and learning their thoughts about the career I wanted, gave me the feeling that it would be impossible to make a living as a writer and that having any kind of writing degree would be pointless. I then read up on my favorite authors who went to college to see what did they major in while they were in college and I found that most of them studied Psychology. I then read an article about an MTV star who was deciding to major in Psychology as well. In the article, she explained her reason why she was going to major in the subject, and she shared a similar interest as me; which was the fact that we like helping others. That day, I decided that I would change my major to psychology and possibly become a counselor and within that path, I would find a way to publish books as well.
To give you a background story of my life, I am the oldest sibling of three children between both of my parents. My mother went to the same community college I went to and received her associates in child development, while my father went to a trade school, but I am unsure if he finished his program. My grandparents on my mother side moved from North Carolina, and they only had a high school education. With this background, I entered college sightly blind sighted of what I'm supposed to major, how I'm I suppose to know what I would be interested in doing for the rest of my life after graduating college, and how I am I suppose to gain resources that surpass my parents and grandparents knowledge? The only close family members who attended a University and received at least a Bachelor degree was my grandparents on my father side and his sister; which is my aunt. By the time I graduated with my Associates, I only had one grandparent and my aunt to talk to about life as a University college student. Today as I'm entering my final year at my University, I only have my aunt. With this small background story, you can see how I could feel completely lost when it comes to the thought of entering University.
Back in high school, my godmother told my mom about a program my godbrother had just enrolled in at the community college. The program is called Upward Bound at Prince George's community college, and it helps children who come from homes where their parents are either have low-income paying jobs, have never earned at least one American Bachelor degree, or both. I had to file out an application, and I was soon accepted into the program as well. While in the program, I got helped with school work, I got to visit different colleges, learned about people of different backgrounds and teamwork, and I gained many resources that I would soon need once I become an official college student. My transition from being a senior in high school to becoming a freshman in college was a little rocky until I realized that the resources I had while in the high school program was still helpful and accepting of me once I graduated out the program. They helped me find two jobs on campus through the financial aid program. Through those jobs, I was able to gain the skills that I would continue to use today. They also helped me with my applications for University colleges and scholarships in my state. Without these resources, I don't think I would have attended the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, which was my first and primary choice after graduating from Prince George's Community College with my Associates.
During the Fall semester of my last year at the community college, I came across a flyer on one of the billboards looking for creative writing pieces to include into their art & literacy publication and I submitted a few poems to the college's newspaper group. Two of my poems were accepted, and I performed one of the poems during the book release event. This was the first time I became published anywhere, and this gave me the confirmation I needed to realize that not only do the people who personally knew me but that other people liked my work and motivated me to continue writing. I entered the next two semester publications, and those poems got accepted too, and I was allowed to perform at both events.
During the time of the third publication release event, I was now a UMBC member working on my first semester there. I was also part of the UMBC Retriever Newspaper as a poet, and I was the secretary of my apartment community that was also located on the campus. At this time in my life, you would think I was on cloud nine and life couldn't get any better for me. At this moment, I felt just like that, but reality will soon set in, and it would quickly feel like I made two steps back. This event took place when I was having a conversation with my dad and telling him that I had a hard time passing an advanced math class. At the end of our discussion, that is when I decided that I should make my minor into my major and my major into my minor.
It took me a year and a half before I was able to change my major to how I wanted it to be changed to as a double major in English and Psychology. I even added a concentration in Developmental Psychology after working at my current daycare for a year and a half. I decided to double major because I realized how much I enjoyed writing and I knew I would have regretted not getting a degree in English and I needed at least one English class each semester as an outlet between the Psychology classes. And I kept Psychology as my major because I did enjoy most of my psychology classes, but not as much as I enjoyed my English classes and I took too many courses to just receive a minor in it. At this point in my life, I soon realized that I no longer wanted to become a counselor and that my passion has always been writing and working with children.
After realizing my passion, I look back on how life tried to tell me what they were in many mysterious ways. One sign was that I would always feel as though writing was an outlet for me and I enjoyed it so much that I would create new stories and poems for free. Another sign was that life would always find a way to get me to write new creative material. And the art of working with children has always been a natural skill for me thanks from the shallowing I did with my mom throughout her career. And within both professions, I receive a lot of feedback that my writings and working with children have help them in some way. Even though I no longer plan to become a counselor, I am still able to help others as I wanted to when I initially changed my major to Psychology.
For my advice to you, I would say to first pay attention to the signs. What is one or more activities or thoughts you keep coming back to and find complete happiness in? What is one thing you would do for free if bills were not involved? My second advice would have to be, focus on your own happiness and not anyone else's. When you become selfish about your own happiness, life becomes very worth wild. My third advice would be, don't be afraid to try something new. If you find that you have interest in something that you never done before, just try it. How would you know what you're good at or like if you haven't even tried it out first? The answer is, you won't and you just might regret not participating in the activity in the future. And my fourth advice, don't wait to make it the changes in your life happen, start working towards those goals now because tomorrow is not promised to you. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." See you next month!
