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Author Topic:   kind of looking for pep talk
virgotaurustaurus
Knowflake

Posts: 2431
From: upstate NY, USA
Registered: Oct 2004

posted February 27, 2007 01:22 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for virgotaurustaurus     Edit/Delete Message
I have to be honest there! I've been feeling oddly and surprisingly limited while I'm at college in my path towards a potential career. I have been keeping options open, knowing that job searching can be very unpredictable and sometimes leading to nothing for months. I'm an Environmental Sciences major. I quite like it, but it just feels like every professor I have thinks his class is the most important, which is fine, I'd be worried otherwise, but when it comes to actually talking to the professors about potential careers, that is where the limitations occurs. Severe limitations. I literally have been told by professors not to set my sights too big as I will most likely wind up working in a crappy low-paying lab after college. WTF? Despite that this may be true, it is also not the only thing that could happen and I can SEE that. I have HAD it happen. I took a couple years off and worked a crappy data entry job just to save money. I just don't get why I can't dream big, or I can't even say, okay maybe after college I will be somewhat burnt out and I will go work this job in this other field for awhile. I don't understand why I feel like I'm being pushed into severe unhappiness. I feel like I'm paying thousands to be told to just give up and work in some horrid lab. But then I see people do things like graduate, move away, and work at like, Dolphin World in Florida. I feel like I have the motivation and drive to be so much more than I'm being encouraged to do, and to me that hurts, I feel like I am not seen as someone capable of doing bigger, better things.

In fact, I have maybe 1 person who is actually telling me to set my sights high even if I don't reach them at first. How surprising that it is a Sagittarius! He sees me as creative as I am, and as motivated as I am, and has even told me I could do scientific illustration or nature photography. This excites me to hear! Hell, I'd even be okay as a park ranger.

I just don't know why my college is such a dream killer. In a way I'm not surprised, so many of my professors seem angry with their lives and people around them. My college is a state college and has had problems with professors leaving due to not being paid enough, something they have wanted to keep secret but some professors just before leaving let the students know. I feel like the professors either never had a decent good paying job, or they are so angry now with a job they don't like that they ruin it for their students.

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Motherkonfessor
Knowflake

Posts: 839
From:
Registered: Oct 2003

posted February 27, 2007 01:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Motherkonfessor     Edit/Delete Message
Perhaps your professors believe they are speaking from "reality." That's their belief- not yours.

The field you have chosen is not an easy one to find great jobs in. And by the way- park ranger jobs are not that easy to get- having lived in a NP for years now, I have watched many inspired, brilliant people fight tooth and nail to try to get an "in."

Keep up the good fight, and don't let your surroundings get you down.. i hate to say this, but college is not the real world. If you believe (and it totally sounds like you are smart enough, and motivated) to do something wonderful with your degree- you will.


MK

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Philbird
Moderator

Posts: 3337
From: Here, there and everywhere.
Registered: Jun 2004

posted February 27, 2007 09:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philbird     Edit/Delete Message
Edit, personal info

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virgotaurustaurus
Knowflake

Posts: 2431
From: upstate NY, USA
Registered: Oct 2004

posted February 28, 2007 09:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for virgotaurustaurus     Edit/Delete Message
Oh man, both replies...so awesome!!

MK, it makes total sense that they are probably speaking from their own realities.

I guess what I was trying to say is, if after I graduated and wound up in a job doing something totally different, such as say, I don't know, photo restoration (just an example), I would be totally fine, whereas it sounds like Satan would rear his ugly head if I even THOUGHT of that whilst talking to one of these professors. Not that I won't try my hardest to get wherever I want, but I found out recently a lot of my role models had actually studied biology and then did totally different things, so I KNOW it is okay hahaha.

I keep trying to tell everyone at college that it's not the real world! Oh god, no one there gets it I swear.

Philbird, thank you! I need to remember that I attract what I desire, I should write that on a piece of paper and post it above my desk. Maybe even make a list of things I want.

Your education sounds like it was awesome!! And I actually really like to network, I should get back to it. Believe it or not, my little bit of networking led to me an unpaid writing stint which got published internationally, so I know if I do that again I may find something else I think is magical. I guess feeling so narrowly focused and stuck in my major right now has me pretty bummed, because I know I have other talents.

Oh and thank you so much for the connection to your brother! His job with hawks appeals to me and so does the department he works for. I'm going to hunt him down and email him within the next few days (right now I'm in the midst of an evil research paper!), thank you so much!

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