Some years back, after completing my first degree, my colleagues were seriously hunting for jobs. I remember being so relaxed because I had other plans, and also, I already had certain opportunities waiting for me. And these opportunities were birthed from connections I made on campus. (Maybe I’ll write about that some other time.)
Some I turned down because I felt they were suffocating. Others, I had to recommend certain colleagues to take them up. As I said earlier, I had other plans, so I had to let go of each one of them. Even the tempting ones. I remember my friends being so annoyed and thinking I was being naive for sticking to my plans.
I mean, if you think about it, it’s only right that you make money after leaving school. That’s like the normal steps to take. You don’t just abandon money or opportunities and get up one day to say. Ehh… this degree is useless to me; I’m just going to stick to the original plan I have on paper and go for that one goal I want in life.
Hold on, that was me exaggerating. I didn’t mean my first degree is useless. No, it’s not. It’s very important to me. And no, I’m not telling anyone to forget about their first degrees. Let me just make this clear before the next minute, I see a post titled “Abenad inspired me to drop out of school.”
So back to what I was saying. I decided to stick to my original plan, and that meant forgoing everything I had worked so hard to achieve in those four years of my undergraduate life. And it’s weird how I didn’t even sit down to think and think and think and then decide. It just happened overnight, and I didn’t even understand.
So many years later, and I now understand why I rejected all the juicy opportunities I had. And I also now get why, although they were juicy, they also felt very suffocating.
Most of these opportunities were actually lifetime contracts. I just found out that the companies know how vulnerable and desperate graduates are, so they take advantage. So imagine being signed by a company with a great salary and all, but you can’t leave until the next 40 years.
You see, I began by saying the opportunities I got felt suffocating, and you know what’s weird? I didn’t even know all the details, yet they felt off. That’s called discernment. I believe discernment is one of the things this generation underrates.
Sometimes, just a silly feeling of doing or not doing something can literally save your life. “I can’t place my hand on what this is, but I believe I shouldn’t do A or B.” And that feeling might not even make sense to you, but it doesn’t even matter. What truly matters is having the ability to comprehend and give a clear judgement of a situation before deciding. And that, my friends, is very golden.
Images are mine