They say you should build your career in your 20’s, or at least you know what you want by now. But what about us, people who don’t know where to start and don’t really have everything figured out?
I am turning thirty this year and I have been working in the same industry for six years now. This journey so far has been humbling yet very exhausting: I learned a lot, I was put to the test and taken out of my comfort zone. I’ve been screamed at, talked about, went through dirty workplace politics… every time I experience something bad, I always asked myself, “Is this the type of shit sandwich I want to be in?”
This shit sandwich concept came from the author Mark Manson, who basically said that everything comes with hardships and that you must decide on which are you willing to put yourself into.
I thought so hard and really went deep into my heart about this. I am turning thirty. I am not financially stable, I don’t like the shit sandwich I’m in and the saddening thing is, I don’t exactly picture myself being in this same industry in the years to come.
It’s crazy deriving to this conclusion because we are constantly being pressured by society’s life timeline. As I’ve mentioned earlier, a lot of people around us expect us to have things figured out in our 20’s which limits us and puts us in a box.
We punish ourselves if we do not live up to expectations and feel like we are a complete failure.
It’s scary to think of leaving the familiar, but I want to do something that makes me feel alive and happy in what I am doing. Now, this is tricky, because some of our passions in life are risky, and so, we tend to just dream rather than act something about it. A lot of us, including myself, can’t really afford to fail. But in my 20s, I’ve come to realize that failure is a part of life and when you fail, it just means that you acted upon something and you learned something in the end. It’s still a win!
As I am writing this, I am taking that leap of faith in starting to pursue one of my passions. I don’t know how this will go, but hey, the important thing in life is to keep on trying. You go for the things that make your soul alive. You continuously search for ways to achieve your goals and aim for your dreams.
In love, there’s this famous quote, “age doesn’t matter”, and that applies to passions too. We are never too old, too late, and too busy to find things that will ignite our inner desires. If we are just determined enough, I believe, we can do things beyond our wildest imaginations that will surprise us and make us proud of ourselves, at whatever age we are at the moment.