No Typical Moments

For the past month, I’ve put off writing up a post on achieving another bucketlist goal for the year. Was it a terrible experience? Did it not live up to my expectations? Attending the Big East Championship game has been something that I’ve dreamed of attending since the Vonteego Cummings era at Pitt. So why the hesitation? 

After some self reflection, I realized that this trip pushed me outside of my comfort zone more than I had anticipated.  I’ve done the Mega Bus trip on numerous occasions to NYC and I’ve lived in the city for two separate summers. However, it was a much different experience for me this time around for a variety of reasons. The game lived up to my expectations, but there were things that made me uneasy in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

You are probably looking at that number and thinking to yourself ‘What the hell is Andrew attempting to get at here?’ I recently watched a TEDx speech in which Mel Robbins explained that 1:400,000,000,000 is the chance of you being born. With those odds already stacked against you from Day 1, it is clear that you were brought into this world to do great and amazing things. The harsh truth is that most people don’t accept that reality and settle for ordinary. People don’t allow themselves to become vulnerable and realize that ‘fine’ and ‘the status quo’ simply are not good enough. I’ll be honest with you, if you don’t want to be a banker then settling for being a banker because of a looming student debt isn’t satisfactory! So before you read any further, I want to know if any of the below resonate with you:

• I want more than my current environment allows me to experience 
• I think college will forever be the best 4 years of my life
• I hit my snooze button at least 2-3 times every morning before I finally get up
• When I want something, instead of acting immediately I think of what could happen if I fail
• Everybody else around me is doing ____ after school so that has to be the path to success………
• I’m just not creative enough to pursue a career based around my passions
• I’ll wait till ____ to do ______
• Remember back in high school…………
• If only I had ____ then I would do _____
• It’s abnormal to use the word dream, dreamer, dreaming, passion, passionate

1. A college degree doesn’t differentiate you in the job market- You were probably told throughout your four years of college that you go to a ‘premier university that will give you the keys to be successful’. Sounds familiar? The harsh truth is that it doesn’t matter what type of degree you have, what your GPA is, or what your major is. You land a job through networking, being personable in an interview, and showcasing your sickening work ethic with awesome work experience. I know that you just paid $_____ for your undergraduate degree, but it’s time to let go of it. A degree is a degree and it truly doesn’t matter where it was from. You either can produce or you can’t…….it’s that simple.
2. More schooling isn’t necessary to land a job- I believe that the worst advice out there is the idea that you need more schooling to land a job. I could go on a rant on this topic, but instead I will redirect you to this article on how to land a job:  http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/09/29/8-steps-to-getting-what-you-want-without-formal-credentials/.

Like so many college students out there, I went through school completely unaware of what I wanted to do when my safety net was finally up after four years. As a result of being so clueless, I fell into the trap of letting society, my college, and my peers dictate to me what my career and life ‘should be’. I was headed down a more traditional path that had a very clear road to success because I thought that was what I was suppose to do and that there was no other option. After internship after internship after internship in these fields, I was still completely clueless as to what I actually wanted to do! Deep down, I wanted to pursue a career that I wanted and that I was extremely passionate about, but I was never able to take that leap of faith for whatever reason.

After a wave of inspiration this past week, I decided to create a ‘Top 5’ list of the reasons why people (myself included) do not pursue their passions. I hope this resonates with you and gives you some motivation to get up tomorrow and take boots to asses!

5) Aren’t willing to separate from the herd- It is so much easier to go down the road that everybody else is taking instead of staying true to yourself. It is an awfully daunting task to carve your own path! I went to college where the vast majority of my classmates went on to be doctors, lawyers, and bankers. Not that there is anything wrong with that career direction, but I only pursued that route because everybody else around me was doing it. As an impressionable undergraduate, it was significantly easier to go down the path of everybody else instead of following my own heart. You need to immediately start to adopt the mentality of Wiz Khalifa and tell yourself “While you busy tryin to fit in, Imma stand out!”