The Final Essay

I belong to the Generation Y, also known as Millennials. According to the statistics my big “coming out” to the world was supposed to happen by 2012. And still 9 years later, I have not finished my educational journey. I’ve always thought that I am the only one unfulfilled individual. But, over the time, talking to my friends and peers, I have realized there are many young adults on the threshold of their third decade, who still haven’t decided what they want to be as professionals. This narrative essay consisting of three main sections will try to understand the reason of this deceleration in Generation Y and my long journey in particular.

According to statistics, the rate of unreturning students, unfortunately, tends to grow. There are many reasons to that – lack of financial funds, poor academic performance, unforeseen family circumstances.  But according to my observations, one of the main reasons is also students’ realization of a wrongly chosen degree. Very often new college applicants’ decision of the future profession highly depends on the expectations of their parents and teachers. Another main aspect, influencing the freshmen’s decision is a race for financial independency. Also, many high school graduates, spending the most of their lives in the walls of educational establishments, just want the college time to go as fast as possible by choosing the “easiest” in their opinion way. Unfortunately, many of them do not realize that the educational journey is about a search of themselves in something, that will really fulfill and satisfy them as professionals.

Do parents know better?…

I was not an exception. If I had a chance to meet myself back in 2006, I would have a long persuasive conversation to myself, trying to convince me to follow my own independent educational path. I doubt it would have been successful, since the authority of my parents was so strong, that even nowadays, in my thirties, I listen to their opinions with a great respect.

My family carries four generations of engineers. And for my siblings and me, the choice of future career was a foregone conclusion. The first “victim” was my older brother. Being an A-student in high school, he always felt connected to the nature, and dreamed of becoming a forest ranger. But for my parents, very well-known and respected engineers in the city, it was out of question. Back than the rangers hardly made any money, and it also meant to live somewhere in wilderness. My parents made a choice for my brother to apply to Polytechnical University and become a power engineer. Many years later, he graduated successfully, and became one of the best and highly demanded tester of turbine equipment in the country. It seems everything worked out in the best way for him. But his dream of becoming a ranger still haunts him – he bought a land surrounded by forest in the suburbs of the city, built his house there, and in his free time he takes long walks in the forest, dreaming about his retirement.

My parents had the best intentions for my brother when choosing his career. Of course, they had in minds secure life for him, which in their opinion could be achieved only with the engineer’s salary. And, in my opinion, just because my brother has always been responsible, he achieved such career heights, but the satisfaction from his job was never achieved. The same fate waited for me – my parents chose a business administration degree for me, which I successfully achieved, and it has never brought me any self-satisfaction. So being more of a rebellion in the family, I have decided to explore different professional fields, and since then, my educational journey has continued till present day.

My long journey to fulfillment

Back in 1995, when I first entered the walls of primary school, nobody told me that the path to professional development is a path through trials and errors, and sometimes it can take longer than expected. And, in fact, for over quarter of a century my path to professional education has never stopped, but rather been interrupted by several steps-back to reevaluate the whole process. My entire journey was accompanied by several events, seemed meaningful back there, but leading to the right direction.

My first memory of realization of some kind of professional fulfillment probably goes to the second grade, when whole class got an interactive assignment to write about main cultural differences between men and women clothes. Hardly knowing how to spell correctly, but with a huge enthusiasm, I outlined the main differences on the piece of paper and handed it to my first teacher – exceedingly kind and experienced lady. She was so amazed by my work, that she read it at loud for the entire class putting my work as an example. I still remember that feeling of satisfaction and self-pride. It was probably for the first time of my eight-year-old life that somebody, but my parents, was satisfied and proud of my work. I still remember how inspired I was, and school seemed the best what could happen to me.

Over the years in school that feeling began to vanish away with the young kid’s preconception – to be a nerd is not cool. I still managed to have a great academic record in high school and get a degree in BA, but that feeling of eight-year-old me had never visited me again, and I’ve decided to further continue my educational journey.

My second step in pursuing myself happened 10 years later after my degree.

After migrating to the United States, I got admitted to the City College’s Engineering school. I thought I almost succeeded but being a young adult with a decent salary in the greatest city of the world, slightly shifted my priorities not towards education. I still remember how almost failing the exam in linear algebra equations, my professor – an older, very reputable man – approached me and very politely hinted that this degree might not sue me very well. I have never felt more humiliated, ashamed, and angry. And, of course, I was angry of him, and ashamed of myself. For the rest of the semester, I overcame myself and managed to pass that class with B plus. At that point I wanted to prove that professor was wrong about me and I could be a successful engineer. But several semesters later, I realized that the chosen path would not bring my second-degree emotions and satisfaction back.

For several years I was thinking and deciding on what I want to be. I was torturing myself for being useless and failed individual. At that time a spontaneous advice of my-mother-in-law changed everything for me and brought me back to school. Once at family dinner she casually suggested “Why don’t you become an architect?”. To say it shocked me is to say nothing. I have always considered architects as gods of the construction industry. In order to become an architect, I thought, you need to be out of this world, irrational, super creative, and, of course, you need to have drawing skills of da Vinci. Obviously, I do not have a tiny bit of all these.  Nevertheless, I decided to try, and got excepted to the Architectural department of NYCCT. And from the first class I realized that to be an architect is really what I was looking for; I just did not know it before.

Being in Junior year in the architecture program, has really been a blast. Despite the fact, that some professors are a bit younger than me, and my groupmates roll their eyes finding out my age, it is the best time of my educational journey. After every presentation of new projects, I get to experience the same feeling I had in the second grade. The professors’ critique and praise make me feel encouraged, satisfied, and willing to make the next project even better.

With deep pockets but lost…

To be fairly honest, I must say, before applying to the architecture department I did a full research of the profession including its average median pay. And it was quite a surprise for me that architect don’t make that much money, unless, of course, you are Frank L. Wright or Zaha Hadid type of architect. And it made me concerned in the beginning, but as I said, from the first class all my doubts vanished, and I knew I would succeed in the field as long as I really love what I am doing. No wonder Henry Ford once said, “The best job is a high-paid hobby”, I totally agree on that.

Nowadays, unfortunately, many college students pursue financial aspect in the pursue of future career. And there is no doubt, that the money is very important aspect in life, but it should not be a key point in choosing your future career, self-satisfaction and significance of your work would earn all the money.

I used to prioritize the money the same way. For over seven years I worked in one of the world’s famous and luxury hotel as a bartender. I have met people from all over the world of different occupations and backgrounds. And as usual I had some small talks with the patrons at the bar. The typical questions were: Where I was from and What I do besides this job. At the time when I was in engineering school, I would tell my guests that I was a student. And their reaction was priceless. The words of encouragement, approval, and satisfaction would flow in my name. People, who had businesses all over the world, would tell me their stories, how they started as waiters and grew further tirelessly in order to finish college and to become who they are now. But at the time I was off the college (so called re-evaluating time), I caught a sense of my guests’ disapproval and disappointment. At that time, I was a little bit annoyed by their reaction, because in my opinion, I achieved a lot as an immigrant. I had a secured job in the union house, a six-digit salary, insurance, and benefits. But at the same time, I felt like something was left off – a dream of self-fulfillment. And I knew the only way to fill that gap to go back to school, but to study what was another question.

It took me some time to realize that money is not the only important thing to consider. I did make a decent amount of money, even more than some my friends with Business degree made. But the way they talked, felt, and perceived themselves as professionals, was something that I lacked and was jealous about.

Conclusion

In my essay I mostly intended to inspire young adults not to give up in their educational journey. The importance of education – is not only in pursuing a degree just because you are expected to, but it really lays down in the decision of what field and career will bring you the satisfaction of the process and the result.

Sometimes the best advice or hint for your future career path hides where you don’t expect it. You should appreciate all the advice and suggestions your parents and teachers give you in high school, but the main choice is yours. You shouldn’t be scared of a long educational journey, if you do what you really like the time will fly by. You should not be in a race for money as a priority, if what you do really gives you fulfillment, the money will come along.

It is totally fine if in the middle of your educational journey, you realize that it is not what you want to do in the future. It is totally fine to take step back from education and re-evaluate your path. It is never late to come back to school and start a path to your dream job even if you have doubts. The result of self-satisfaction and fulfillment will be worth it. And for my part, I would like to add that my parents are immensely proud of me and my choice of a future profession. Once my mom admitted that she kindly envies me, since I really do what I fancy, and it is her biggest achievement to realize that her child’s dream is coming true.