When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be…
January 18th, 2009 | Categories: Question of the Week, School | 7 CommentsI had a million and one aspirations as to what was going to be my career once I grew up. I’ve wanted to be a nurse, a teacher, an actress, a veterinarian, an author… you name it, that’s what I wanted to be. It’s funny how often I changed my mind when I was little, but the older I got, the more focused I became on my career goals. No longer did I change my mind every week about what I wanted to grow up to be; instead I picked two or three career paths that really appealed to me and concentrated on them.
When I was applying to colleges, I declared my major as “International Studies” because I thought I liked that sort of thing, a focus of study about the relationships between countries and ties that exist within the global stage. Plus, my top choice university is renowned for being diverse and having a phenomenal International Studies program, so I was confident with the major I initially declared. But what I hadn’t realized was that I liked the cultural, historical, and linguistic aspect regarding relations between countries. I wasn’t so much a fan of the political and economic situations that motivated the actions of any particular country. I was also dissatisfied with the writing component for the major. I absolutely adore writing, but I didn’t want to write about the theory of defensive realism or the school of mercantilism within international political economy. It just didn’t interest or motivate me the way I thought it would, and I ended up looking to see what other majors my college offered that I would be interested in.
After doing a lot of thinking and meeting with various advisors, I am now majoring in French and Communication Media and minoring in Chinese. It’s really intense and difficult at times, but I am studying what I truly love and I know that I can use the degree I am earning towards a career that I will wholly enjoy and be satisfied with. My Communication Media studies will enable me to have a career that heavily involves writing, and my French and Chinese studies means that if I wanted to, I could go work in a French or Chinese speaking country, which is perfect since I love living abroad. I could work as a translator, a journalist, a public relations representative… the possibilities within my chosen field are endless.
Question of the Week: When you were little, what did you want to grow up to be? Has that changed over time? What would you like your career to be now?
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
what didn’t I want to be lol in fact I still have no idea now, and im not even sure I have that many options. I guess that is my sacrifice for studying what I enjoy.
As a child I’ve always been veeery creative. First, I decided to be a zoologist. Then, a journalist. Then, I wanted to merged these two and become a journalist for National Geographic! I was awesome. But I sson realized that I’m not interested in Biology, in fact, I don’t care about it, at all, so I sticked with writing for a while.
Finally, I’m here, and I don’t know what I want to do. I love doing graphics, I love writing, and I love learning languages. My brother is studying to become a travel guide, and it sounds really great – but I don’t like being around people much. So, that’s another “no”. Maybe I’ll become a translator, an interpreter, or something like that. I’m still not sure, but I have time. 3 and a half years – that should be enough!
By the time I leave this school I’ll have a German and English language diploma, plus I plan to learn Spanish and Japanese during the summer(s). I learn (or improve) a language every summer – it makes me feel better about myself. That’s the good side of my mother working for one.
Duh, I definitely make a lot of mistakes when I’m tired. @_@ How sad. Maybe I should just leave the idea of becoming a writer one day… ;p
Yay for studying languages! ♥
When I was young (8yo) I wanted to be and English teacher, ahah.
At the moment I’d love to be a translator or an interpreter as well. Learning languages is basically the only thing I can do and love doing.
Or, I’d love to leave and move to England: living there would be awesome and not having to speak Italian would be even more awesome, and it’d be fine to have a common and perfectly normal job (waitress, shop assistant, whatever), for real.
I’m doing a double major in Political Science and International Studies now because I love the whole politic/economic aspect between countries, and I find the cultural stuff really boring (I’m the complete opposite, haha!) so yeah, it’s interesting that you find the complete opposite interesting.
Wow! You sound like me! Haha. I was going to go into PoliSci for a while and do the whole International Studies thing, but then decided (as you know) to go back to web design. Ehe. I admire you for studying languages, especially Chinese. It’s the hardest language in the world, so you deserve major props. :D
As for me, when I was little, I wanted to be a scientist. ALWAYS. I remember being in kindergarten and telling everyone “I’M GONNA BE A SCIENTIST” and I didn’t even know what it was. Ehe. I pursued Anthropology for a while, but didn’t like it that well. So, back to web design for me! :D
[...] available for me in life, both in terms of my career as well as my personal life. I have my current study plans worked out, which will hopefully result in job offers in my desired field, with the additional [...]