I often come across teens and youngsters that develop anxiety or depression issues under career-professional and educational pressures. What can one do to comfort people who feel a sense of failure if they’ve taken a gap year, just started a job and aren’t being paid as per they’re expectations, a fresh graduate who has no idea what they want to do in life or a person who’s being forced into choosing a career path just because theirs didn’t make sense to others?
If you relate with any of the mentioned above, take a deep breath and relax. I know it’s easier said than done but know you’re not alone in this. Research and turning this energy of the constant worry into something productive is your best friend. But this comes after acceptance or research. Are you a person who feels like they’re behind in life? Did you take a gap year for any reason? Are you years behind people your age in career or education or even starting a family? Know, everyone has a different timeline. What I tell these people is to have faith in the fact that everyone has been given a different timeline. If you believe that you will ever turn 32 years old, why not be a 32 year old with that degree that you’ve always wanted instead of one who doesn’t have one because they feel like it’s too late now or they’re behind everyone and nothing makes sense? I would say, go and get that degree, practice the profession that YOU want to because in the end it’s going to be you who will be doing it anyway. Why not do what you would want to wake willingly every day for?
In today’s world where there are a million doctors divided into branches, as in there is a different doctor for bones, there’s a specific doctor who has specialized in any one bone of the human body. This was an example and just like being a doctor or an engineer, being a professional artist, mural artist, interior designer, a marketer, an architect and so on, are proper professions with a huge opportunity platform. Parents are not to be blamed, relatives are not to be blamed everyone has their own point of view but research. Research about the professions you’re interested in. Study about that degree you want but can’t due to societal or family pressures.
Everything takes time. Your story is yours to write. Always remember, “Failure has no fathers but success has a million”. When people seeing you do good in life, they’ll tell everyone how they were a part of your life. Similarly, if you’re not been doing good or going through a rough patch at some point in life, people would look for ways to be excluded from your story and no one would be willing to own you. So the people that you are so afraid of fluctuate with time and your progress. So, instead of thinking of what others are doing or what others would say, always do what you would wake up every day and continue to love doing and if you’ve not figured it yet, explore your options. Do not fear being left behind. It’s always better to learn about yourself than wasting four years of your life to get a degree you wouldn’t know what to do with.
In the end I would like the parents to be a support to their children and to show them a path, teach them what’s right and what’s wrong. Educate your kids about the career they want to proceed with, research should be for everyone since we learn every day. Support your kids, love them and be there for them since the world is already enough to be harsh on them. And for the parents that have been a rock for their children and been supportive the whole time should know it they’re doing great and their support directly speaks through their children. In the end those who have their loved ones, parents and family at their back are the ones that bloom the most.
