How to discover your own path

以前、キャリアの探し方に関する英語のエッセイを執筆したので、その再掲です。新年度なので掲載してきます。

    Upon entering university, you may think that you are free to do whatever you want as a student. Your parents, seniors, mentors, and teachers will often say that you will discover what you want to do and freely engage in it within the university campus. While such student-based curiosity-driven activities are always welcome and even strongly encouraged by faculty members, will you easily find what you want to do? Or do you need to decide on what you want to do during your student life before entering university? I think that it is extremely hard to discover your own path and determine what to study. When you speak openly about such worries with your friends in the campus, you will find that many students share your concerns as they too face troubles regarding similar matters. 

    Looking back at my freshman year, I had not decided on my future career and what I wanted to pursue in the university. When some of my friends shared their dreams and future careers, I always asked myself why I enrolled in this university. Furthermore, even when I received my doctoral degree nine years after entering the university, I struggled to identify a career direction and understand what I needed to do as an academic researcher. The lesson I learned from my student life was that it is most difficult for one to recognize one’s abilities and to decide on what one wants to pursue. Fortunately, right now, I have discovered my own path and am enjoying science as a physics researcher. 

    Unfortunately, there is no systematic or unique method to discover your own path and determine what to pursue during your campus life. Nevertheless, you do not want to spend boring days in the university. When you ask somebody about what to do in the campus life, they may suggest that you actively and enthusiastically participate in classes, part-time jobs, and extra-curricular activities. However, you may not heed their advice. In such situations, you may become annoyed. As a university student, controlling such uneasy feelings is a challenge. When your friends discover and forge their own paths, you might compare yourself with them. However, such comparisons are unnecessary because each individual is essentially different from you and will pursue different careers. You should only evaluate yourself. When you walk around the campus, you may notice strange monuments, an unusually-shaped classroom, or an uninspiring building and accidentally cross paths with classmates. Casual conversations between friends may inspire your heart and alleviate your worries. The university campus may bring forth serendipitous events to inspire ambition. Because nobody knows when opportunity will present itself, the preparation period—that is, period of feeling uneasy and unsure—is important. Therefore, one should make the most of such moments.

 

Illustration: courtesy of Misato Kusakabe [myaguro]