Ever since I was young, I have always wanted to tell some kind of story. Most of the stories that I liked were animated, along with other storytelling devices like graphic novels, games with nice visuals and comics. Art, to me, is a perfect way to tell a story. This helps a lot given I’ve always had trouble formulating words.
I’ve spent a lot of time drawing and thinking of storylines I liked, but I’ve never shared any of it. I always kept those types of things to myself. Still, I’ve always gravitated towards the arts and telling stories or anything that can make an audience feel the tone or mood.
Of course, when we’re young, we are always asked what we want to be when we grow up. Being Asian and wanting to have a stable future, my parents wanted all of my siblings to either be engineers or doctors. This was especially since those careers are what they know best, have good pay and are what allowed us to move to the U.S. from the Philippines.
However, those jobs aren’t exactly creative. While there are benefits of having those careers, I know it wouldn’t make me happy. The thought of not having a stable life scares me, thus prompting me to believe that’s what I should aim for.
As I grew up, it became more and more obvious that I wanted to create art and be creative. For me, this meant pursuing animation. After all, animation has driven my interests in art and other pastimes.
But combined with not being the most outgoing person, not wanting to share my silly stories or art with anyone, wanting a stable income and lately the whole mess that’s going on with animation, I’m hesitant. In spite of this, I still want to pursue it.
It wasn’t until I got into Bradley that I really had to stop and think about what I wanted. I could have gone into animation, but it would have taken too long and been too expensive. I’ve majored in UX design instead, with some hope that I could still be able to do something creative and tell stories.
After my first semester here, I realized that UX design would help me do what I love. I’m still able to do a lot of things I enjoy and make things that I could get paid for – it’s exciting.
Still, I have some hesitation about what my future will look like, I am unsure what my goals will be in five years and I don’t know what my plans after graduation will be.
To stay optimistic, my advice to myself, and anyone else who needs it, is this: enjoy the time you have now and make the things you like. You can keep it yourself, but also consider sharing it; there are people who would love your ideas. Opportunities are everywhere, and we should make the most of them while we’re here. After all, the future won’t wait. Before you know it, it’s already here.
