It's Your Life.

Ever since I was old enough to consider what my future career path might be, I was always certain of what I want to do with my life. Now, you might think that since I've always known what I wanted to do then my college path would be a obvious... but that is not the case. In the future I would like to have a career doing some work with photography and graphic design, but according to some superior sources the arts are not particularly 'marketable' skills.

So, because of this I decided to start college as a marketing major with a "this won't be that bad" mindset. I've now been in college for half of a semester and I can already see that it is, unfortunately, that bad. I'm uninterested in my classes, having trouble meeting people that I'm compatible with, and having an overall mediocre time.

When I found myself faced with this conflict between what I love to do and what could earn more money, the solution was very simple for me. I would rather be happy in my job doing what I love than being miserable with a big pay check. And even though I came to this decision rather easily, there is still a whole new set of problems to tackle. I now have to see if I can even get into a good art program at my school mid-year, and then there is the whole other problem of trying to get the approval of my mother. But when I was thinking about this I came to a conclusion.

The conclusion was that I don't need the approval of anybody else. I am fortunate enough to know exactly what I want to do with my life at such an early age, and so why should I not go for it? I will never let myself become the person that wakes up in 20 years and hates what I do everyday. I think that too many people let themselves loose sight of their true ambitions for something that will earn them more money, and that's just terrible.

So, from this somewhat long story that you may or may not find personally relevant I offer a piece of advice. No matter what you want to do with your future do not let anybody say that you aren't good enough, won't make enough money, won't find a job, or any of the other possible reasons not to do the thing that you love. This definitely sounds cliche, but the sky is the limit. If nobody ever tackled their goals head on then there would never be anything great in the world.

Ink.

Perhaps it's a generational thing, but something that I don't understand is certain people's aversion to tattoos. Years ago tattoos were seen as a sign of rebellion or of a person that was in a 'rough crowd', and some people still seem to believe this. Today tattoos are much more commonplace and main stream. Now, I'm not saying that tattoos are things that everybody should get. They're something that some people are just not interested in, but that does not mean that they should show a bias against people with them. There is an especially big bias against the tattooed members of our society when it comes to the work force. I have a very good friend that has found it to be very difficult getting a new job because of his tattoos, and I think that this discrimination is absurd. There are a host of laws that prevent discrimination by employers, including ones regarding physical appearance, yet managers still discriminate against people who happen to have tattoos. I find this completely ridiculous. There are lots of people, including my friend, that would prove to be very good dedicated workers if given the opportunity.
There is a whole art form dedicated to tattoos, and who is any employer to deny a person a job based on their decision to display art on their bodies? I think that it is beautiful if someone is confident enough in themselves to want to display something that is important to them in ink on their bodies forever. I understand that people sometimes end up getting a tattoo and regretting it later in life, but I think that in that circumstance they should have spent more time considering their decision before it was made. I plan on getting sever tattoos in my lifetime, and I have been planning my first one for about two years now. I formed an idea, drew several sketches of it, then took time to think about it more, and repeated that process several times. I want the tattoo because it is something that I drew so it is a personal creation of mine, and it is symbolic to me. I know that I may have to work a little extra hard to get where I want in life because I've chosen to ink my body, but I'm prepared to do that and I dare any unaccepting employer to say that I won't be able to prove them wrong.