University admission is almost over and every fresh graduate is biting his nails. This is the month when they make the biggest decision of their lives. How on earth canare an 18 year old get to know what he is good at when most young Egyptians are sheltered at home? How does a student decide to follow a unique career when the whole country doesn’t accept anything but mainstream careers, clothes, haircuts, etc.?
The answer is always the parents. They brainwash high school students. I completely understand where they are coming from; they have been through enough to make them understand the impact of being an actor, dancer, football player or a makeup artist in Egypt; however, time changes everything as fast as a blink, including what we call a well-paid and prestigious job.
I am a living example of a student who had a feeling about what she wanted, never had enough time to find out how good she was and ended up choosing a university that fit a nerdish score. It has been 15 years that I have been stuck in a career I hate, every year studying harder, going as far as finishing my Master’s degree, trying to be the best I can so that maybe I feel better about it and myself, yet my feelings never changed and they never will.
I am a doctor who dreams of writing a Ramadan mosalsal script rather than fixing people’s teeth. If your parents read this, they will tell you that I have a talent, hence it is an easy choice, and trust me this is another classic brainwashing technique. I have no idea how to write a script, but if I have spent the years wasted on studying human anatomy on learning script writing, this year El Ahd would have been mine.
At the age of 18, all I knew was that I liked TV shows, had an abnormal imagination and liked to read and write. I never put two and two together and interpreted that into literature or script writing. Instead, I decided to study Mass Communication but I screwed up. I listened to people around me telling me that this is a job you can get without a degree and to choose Dentistry so I wouldn’t waste the opportunity, even though I wasn’t interested. Hands down, the biggest mistake of my life.
Parents, please allow your kids to be as creative as they can. God might have bestowed them with a gift that you are simply killing the possibility of ever shining. Kids, just don’t listen to your parents. Fight them, take risks, believe in what you want, trust your instincts. Being different will always get you somewhere, but if they turned out to be right, at least you will not be a 33-year-old doctor constantly dreaming of what ifs. Don’t pursue your parents’ dreams, only yours.
WE SAID THIS: Why Thanaweya Amma Is Designed for You to Fail