You have probably heard people say that the greatest scam of life is thinking that you need to go to school in order to be great. Or that we are tricked into paying so much for an education, just to become products of the system and get into a cycle of working and getting paid peanuts till we die. Going to school at best moulds you to become the regular joe or jane. And popular opinion is that great dreams and goals aren’t achieved by being regular. Getting a regular education and working a regular job. That’s so last, generation! Right?
I do not dispute that sometimes, society can put us in a box. Or more aptly described a straight line. A line of education and a desk job. And any deviation from that like may end in tears. Lol. I also believe in dreaming. Innovation. Creativity. And all the great ways people are expressive in this day and age. A hobby can become passion and passion can make you money. Amen?
But the millennial lifestyle many of us have begun to live these days have begun to shame the “desk job”, the “9-5”, the stability of a salary on the last workday of the month. I mean why not? You see people sit in front of a camera in their bedrooms and make millions of dollars while garnering a following in the millions as well. You see a mumble rapper go viral on dance apps and just like that, the music streams start to pour in. And the royalties that come with it. Or my personal favourites, the motivational entrepreneurs that come to tell us, “I started this business a year ago with one pure water sachet and $30. And now I’m buying houses” etc.
All these can be discouraging to someone that wants to build a career behind a desk. But let me just say it. Having a 9-5 isn’t equivalent to not being “woke.” It isn’t always being a slave to someone else’s dreams as it is often put to be. It could be your dream. There’s room to grow. Make an impact. And realize the purpose. I have read and heard stories of men and women who have put in work over the years and built a life that only some dream of. All from behind a few desks.
So getting that MSc, signing up for that course, preparing or your PhD, applying to all those jobs home and abroad, learning a few skills to help you build your career isn’t a waste of time. Not everyone will be an entrepreneur, a Youtuber, a tik-tok Star. It does not make you less of a dreamer. Or less innovative.
If along the way, that calling comes to you, then, by all means, take the risk. Your life is what you make it out to be. And not what social media thinks it should be.