Dear TSL,
How do you balance doing what you love in exchange for being practical and wanting to be successful financially?
Sincerely,
Lowly Hooper
My grandma always gives the advice that the most important decision you make in life is your romantic partner. But a close second is what you choose to do with your waking hours. After college, the majority of your time will be spent doing the work you choose to do. So you must choose wisely.
Obviously, everyone has different desires in terms of financial freedom. There are those who want to live the globe-trotting lifestyle, others who aren’t content to trade labor for financial capital and others who still believe financial success correlates with life success. Careers are often, of course, chosen out of financial necessity. From here on out I will assume that you know yourself reasonably well and have the privilege to choose between several career paths.
Ideally, you want to find the intersection between your level of desired financial freedom, your interests and what you’re good at. There are many a career quiz out there to help you with this, but they won’t necessarily tell you that if you don’t make enough money to live the lifestyle you want to live, find the work you’re doing interesting and pursue a job you’re reasonably competent at, you will probably struggle career-wise.
I want to make four points that I hope will point you in a thoughtful direction. The first is that doing what you love can also mean doing what you’re good at. It’s intrinsically human to take satisfaction in completing good work and having it praised.
Jokes aside, the path from personal interest to college major to career doesn’t have to be strictly linear, and the non-linear path can often be more compelling. Real passion for any topic will take you to unexpected and interesting places.
Second, you want to be able to look back on your life and feel that it was well-lived. People tend to imagine the well-lived life as a romantic, Vespa-filled existence in Southern France, but the reality is much more nuanced. We find satisfaction in all sorts of ways, whether that be financially providing for your family, creating artwork you find meaningful or attempting to make a worldwide impact.
Third, there is a middle ground between an unemployed Los Angeles creative and a soulless Excel demon. Yes, humanities majors can be employed, even in buzzy fields like tech. And yes, people who know how to code a spreadsheet are not always bent on advising mega-corporations to cut employee benefits. Jokes aside, the path from personal interest to college major to career doesn’t have to be strictly linear, and the non-linear path can often be more compelling. Real passion for any topic will take you to unexpected and interesting places.
Finally, high-paying work is not inherently boring. Some people genuinely do enjoy restructuring a company, arguing a case or determining hiring strategies. Don’t force yourself to enjoy that kind of thing, but also don’t feel guilty if you do (a feeling that is probably especially present at liberal arts colleges).
I’ll end with a word of caution: You should be careful about buying into the idea that it’s worth it to work a job you vehemently dislike and save your ‘doing what you love’ time only for hobbies. To be clear, nobody loves every second of their job, but I caution anyone against pursuing a career that you know you wouldn’t find remotely interesting. Enjoying our limited time in this world, including the work that occupies the majority of our waking hours, is perhaps the most practical way to live.
Dear TSL,
How do I throw the best party the 5Cs has ever seen? Give me the play by play with infinite funds
Sincerely,
Tired Partier
With truly infinite funds, you may as well invite your favorite artist to perform a private concert. But this would be both awesome and improbable, so I’ll focus on some elements that I’ve noticed, in my limited experience, make a good party. This advice is mainly meant for those looking to have smaller gatherings. For the larger ones, I trust the lovely people of 5C events committees.
To start things off, handwritten notes slipped under your invitee’s doors would add a bit of whimsy, secret society vibes and create the promise of a well-thought-out night. Canva fliers sent through text are generally effective these days, but why not go a bit more analog?
Next, and this is a bit more of a hot take, but I think you want to start the party on the earlier side. I’ve found that smaller parties that start too late tend to lose people as they leave to go to the bigger party. As the semester goes on, people are less willing to stay out until the crack of dawn.
Third, you want to provide things to be consumed. I won’t go into specifics on this front, but you don’t want to have to tell people to bring their own consumable accouterments. That being said, I do think it’s perfectly okay to print a Venmo QR code to help foot the bill. In general, I’ve found people are very willing to pay, especially because they don’t have to go through the process of procuring said accouterments or cleaning up afterwards.
Finally, avoid loud music. Not only will this make it less likely for this party that’s shaping up to be phenomenal to get shut down, but it will create a more intimate vibe that lets people actually converse. My biggest pet peeve is when the atmosphere of a small to mid-size party is incompatible with conversation. Leave the massive bass drops to the DJs at the big parties.
Go forth and have fun, and most importantly: Be safe.
Ethan Ravi PO ’29 recently learned he has the same MBTI personality as Robert Downey Jr. This apparently means he would be a good creative director, therapist, public relations specialist, teacher or independent consultant. He has some doubts about the legitimacy of said tests.
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