I personally always became someone/something that I didn't even know I wanted to become. My studies have nothing to do with the career that I was building for years and I never dared to say that I wanted to become someone/something else. I was feeling like I was closed in a cubicle and I couldn't get out. Now I know what I was to be and I clearly name it. I do work towards it and it might take me some time to achieve it but I will get there. I agree with you that it's important to name what/who we want to become. It makes it easier for us to make a plan and develop ourselves to that role. Having clear goals makes everything easier.
I'm glad that you found your passion in writing. I do like to write but it takes me much more time than you :)
Many people are afraid of saying who they want to be and what they want to do.
Some are afraid because of what others may say about them.
Others are afraid of failure.
Others are afraid of success.
That often leads to people studying things they don't care about, becoming something they may not want, and having careers they either hate, or ignore.
Knowing what we want to be may solve a lot of those problems, at least temporarily. Even if we can't start becoming who we want to be immediately, it's good to at least keep it in our mind.
I'm glad you figured out what you want to become in time. The things you studied may be useful in future, and what you do right now, may help you as well at some point.
As long as you know where you want to go and what you want to do, and as long as you're aware of the effort and time it may take, you'll make it.
I think that kids nowadays have more support to decide what they want to do. I had no idea what to study and there was no help or advice so I just decided to something for sounded cool - yeah, my childish brain at that time. I am happy that I finally found my path and that I work towards my dreams..
I attended a workshop yesterday and someone said something interesting. It was about knowing what we don't want but not knowing what we want. And it's so true. So often we know exactly what we don't want but if someone asks us what we want we stay surprised and quiet...
It's interesting to see how our thinking works and that most of us actually don't know what they want..
True, kids nowadays are encouraged to do what they want, mostly because it's more and more obvious that college and formal education isn't the way to go if you want a job any more.
You go to college, you pay God knows how much money, and when you get out, no one guarantees you a job. And, if you live in a place like the US, then you're also, probably, $200,000 in debt.
So yeah, it makes sense that kids are encouraged to do what they want these days. A kid who learns how to code on his own, at least in most areas, can have equal chances or, in some cases, even more chances of getting hired than a person who went to college and did nothing else.
Related to what you said about humans - yes, it is known that people don't often know what they want.
I've read about several experiments were people were asked what kind of partner they were looking for, and after they answered, they were offered to spend time with a completely different type of person.
After some time, the people who said what type of people they prefer suddenly started changing their "tastes" and began to want to spend more time with the people they recently met.
So yeah, often, we don't really know what we want. In a lot of situations, we don't even know what we don't want. Sometimes that can be seen when doing something as simple as refusing a certain type of food, just to later discover that we actually like it, or when we refuse to get a certain job, even though, after a few weeks there, we discover we love it.
I agree with you. The formal education nowadays doesn't guarantee you a job. But the question is how come? Is it because they take people who are not suitable for this education? Or is it because the whole education system is simply built wrongly? If I could turn back the time, the thing that I would change would be my education. You lose so many years of your life studying something what you might not even use..
This is an interesting study. But I can see how it works. Often we think that we are attracted to certain type of people, could be because of our prior experience or simply because these people are perceived as cool. But then when we get to talk to someone completely different we realize that this might be the right direction for us..
I agree with you on the certain type of food as well. I used to hate tomatoes when I was a child and let me tell you that I've never put a tomato in my mouth. A few years ago I've tried them and I actually quite like them. It's not the love of my life yet, but I'll get there..
Sorry for my late response. I've almost missed your comment..
Don't worry about late responses, I usually respond fairly late as well because I focus on working on other things.
The educational system was built for a good reason - to prepare people to work in factories.
It was made to teach people the basic things they would normally need to work in factories, follow the orders of bosses and do their job.
It was also made in a way that could normally teach you a few basic things you'd need so you can take care of yourself for the rest of your life.
And it worked really well years and years ago.
Sadly, times change, and the educational system refuses to see that.
We don't need people in factories any more. Those who own factories will always prefer to hire a machine to do a job 10 times faster and maybe even better than a person, without asking for a salary.
Yet, even if that's how things are nowadays, schools still prepare you to work in factories which is useless.
Kids should be taught other things, like creativity, since that's really important nowadays, or code, to take care of the machines that will work in factories.
But that doesn't happen and it won't happen any time soon. I often think about where I would be right now if I would've learned how to code at 15, instead of being forced to learn 13 different subjects at once.
Sadly, nothing's gonna change soon, and, the way things are right now, after we're done with school, we usually have to spend a few other years learning what we need to learn to get decent jobs on our own.
That's just how the world works at the present moment. We just have to learn things on our own and, if we'll ever have kids, help them do the same.