Often, students who are graduating high school ask me for advice about which school they should attend, what they ought to study, and so on. While these are important questions for students looking forward to a life full of promise, I have taken the opportunity over the last couple of years to reflect on my own life’s journey.
When I first graduated high school, I could think of nothing but pursuing an education in music. Those around me – who care very much about me – tried to dissuade me from my “impractical” decision. Three years later, out of money one year short of a music degree, I entered the workforce and let music be my avocation rather than my livelihood.
Several years later, married and working at various jobs, I re-entered school and studied computer science – a very “practical” decision as well as a subject I enjoyed. Then, I ran into competing priorities: School plus job, or young and growing family. I chose family over school.
Over the years I worked in the financial services industry and the information technology services industry, served as a commissioned Army officer, and as a volunteer avocation founded a music program for home-educated students that has been serving students for nearly 20 years. I completed degrees in business administration and applied science. What I find is this: I am able to draw upon each experience in some way to add value to whatever I am currently doing. No prior experience is wasted. What makes me unique in my professional life and my personal life is the one-of-a-kind blending of my particular past experiences that gives me a unique perspective on my current role.
Very few of my music friends from my early college days are doing what they thought they would be doing with their lives. Very few of my computer science friends are doing what they envisioned with their lives. Many of these remarkable people are life-long friends, who are who they are today in part because of the experiences we shared back then that continue to add vibrancy to our futures.
My advice to those students is to worry less about planning their entire lives now in minute detail, and to think more about how what they do today will enrich their lives and the lives of those around them tomorrow.
