I remember a time when the moral of every movie I watched was that you can be anyone you want to be and do anything you want to do. The world is your canvas so go paint, kind of thing. As a kid, I was told to follow my dreams, wherever they lead me. I was told that there were endless possibilities all with my name on them. I was told to reach for the stars and land on the moon. Naturally, I assumed I was going to cure cancer, become president and star in my own movie.
A shitty thing happens as we grow old though. People stop telling us to believe. Realists, especially. They tell us we're not good enough. And we actually believe them. It was in grade 11, I think- my first time hearing that I wasn't good enough. My calculus teacher told my class something about there being a lot of competition out there and that those competitors are better than us. He wanted to be a professor at a university but he "wasn't smart enough". I forgave him for his cynicism, and assumed he was talking to the rest of the class.
Today, I went to an information session on what being a Life Sciences major entails (it's the major associated with going to Medical school). The dean of Life Sci starts off the presentation saying that we probably all want to get into medical school at this point (he's right) but that we'll change our mind in a few years. And if we don't, we should.
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| If being a kid means believing in believing, I never want to grow up. |
He said something about 100 students getting into our university's medical school out of the 35000 students that applied. Then he emphasized that we should have a back up plan. "You can have a very nice life as a teacher or in industry".
Well dean, I'm sure I would- thanks. I would also have a very nice life as a physician, if I choose to pursue that career. Those 'competitors' you speak of, well they'll be my coworkers and we'll go to dinner at a little cafe on Friday evenings. And you know what else? I don't have a back-up plan and I refuse to ever have one. You may think that's close-minded but it's not. I'm not closing myself off to other careers; I may very well change my mind at any time. I'm closing myself off to a back-up career. I am good enough. And you know the high school teacher I was talking about? He would have made a great professor: he is smart enough and he's an amazing teacher. He isn't back at that high school this year. He's busy pursuing dreams he left behind because society told him to- he's getting his PHD in mathematics.
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