When the Best-Laid Plans Go Awry

-conceptual bridge design by kawaiidaigakusei

"Tell me why all the best laid plans fall apart in your hands. And my good intentions never end, the way I meant." -James Blunt "Best Laid Plans"

My desktop computer has a lot of saved files that have accumulated over the years. Every once in a while, I stumble into a folder and catch a glimpse of an assignment I completed for a class I had years ago. I might read an opinion paper that was written during an all-nighter on a topic that evoked really strong feelings. Then I stumble into a folder that contains all my major projects from my years as an interior architectural design student and I am in awe with my AutoCAD and SketchUp abilities. I think one of the more terrifying realizations of finding old work is that it was produced at a different time in my life when my hopes, dreams, and ambitions were on a completely different wavelength than in the present day.

I selected my college majors based on the subject matter that interested me the most. If anyone asked me why I did it, my young twenty-year-old self would respond, "I am very passionate about these subjects and if I study what I love right now, I will end up in a career that instills a similar sense of passion." For every cynical and negative comment I received, I was fortunate to have very prominent adult supporters such as college professors in my network, a very generous financial aid office, and enough pride that pulled myself up by my bootstraps to work at a part-time job while I was a full-time student.

There was no real way to prepare for life after the college safety blanket was removed and my entire graduating class entered the workforce with degrees during the Financial Crisis of 2008. The scarcity of jobs changed my perspective on the importance of doing a job–any job–in exchange for a living wage. Oh, and do not get me started on the mistake of signing up for an unpaid internship (been there, done that).

I found myself in an interesting position when I moved back to my hometown where having a University degree is more rare than in a major city. Once I learned how to navigate the workforce here, more job offers started coming through and as of this moment, I now have four different jobs (in addition to the weekly newsposts and bimonthly features for Drunk Duck) and I am a candidate for a promotion at one of them. I enjoy all of my jobs, but they all follow very different career paths from the subjects I studied in school.

The reason I get scared when I run into old files from my University days is because it is a reminder of all the things that evoked a sense of passion within me. Perhaps one day in the future, I will finally have the gumption to land a job as an art historian at a museum or an AutoCAD renderer for a large architectural design firm in a major city or a designer to sketch conceptual designs for a major hotel group. In the meantime, I am happy to have an income that can support the cost of things I love to do like drawing.