They say, “do what you love/love what you do.” For centuries, people were born into their careers. If your father was a tailor, you were destined to become a tailor. Limited social mobility meant a person’s future occupation was predetermined. It is only within the last 100 years that a person can choose a profession for themselves, free from the yoke of their father’s industry. And it is the privilege of millennials, myself included, to have the audacity to choose a profession based on their passion.
Nowadays, when someone is searching for a job or determining a career, it is important to them not only to achieve financial stability, but also to love what they do. People don’t only want to go to work – they dare to dream that they will enjoy it. With this in mind, the question then becomes, how can you translate your passion to a profession?
The Early Years
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a pencil in my hand and I’ve been sketching, drawing, and painting. In elementary school, this meant incredibly elaborate book reports and dioramas; in middle school, it meant taking summer classes at the local community college and developing my own custom fonts and cartoon characters. By high school, I volunteered to create materials for virtually every single club. At this point, it was just something that made me happy: creating custom illustrations for school newspaper articles, producing posters to promote events, designing school playbills and choir CD covers, and developing and executing the school yearbook.
By the end of high school, I was toying with the idea of a creative major but wasn’t ready to fully commit. After all, a career in the arts is not necessarily reliable, or even particularly respected nowadays. It is not nearly as popular to paint portraits of nobility as it was in Leonardo DaVinci’s time; nor it is as necessary to have decent handwriting skills. However, upon beginning college, I realized that a creative mind is useful in a variety of professions.
Present Day
After several epiphanies in college, I chose to major in graphic design. I realized that my strong affinity for typography wasn’t in fact weird and that there was an entire industry built around it. Fast forward a few years – I got a job as a graphic designer for R&J Strategic Communications. Now, instead of creating posters to advertise club meetings, I develop billboards to announce store openings. Instead of making book reports portraying the invention of the light bulb, I design infographics educating people about colon cancer. And instead of making custom illustrations for newspaper articles, I design custom graphics for R&J blog posts.
I encourage all those passion seekers out there to learn from this journey. Keep pursuing your hobbies. Educate yourselves to the full extent of your ability. You’d be surprised at all the different ways in which your hobby can manifest itself. Most importantly, enjoy yourself. YOLO 😉