Yesterday, I separately bumped into two people I hadn't seen for three years. The first was an investment banker who's team I interned in four Summers ago. The second, a fellow intern who was in a different department. What are the odds, right?
The investment banker is still at the same investment bank and was surprised at the complete redirection, I'd taken but said "more fun thank banking," which I replied to with "but you've got more stability". That was kind of stupid, investment banking isn't a career known for it's stability but he understood what I meant. From our conversation, it seemed like he was doing well for himself. Twenty minutes later, I bumped into the fellow intern who has now graduated and is currently interning at a creative agency of some sort and wanting to go on to be a talent agent. Suits him.
If you were to ask anybody in my first nineteen years of life what I would be, or wanted to be, you'd have got the resounding answer 'lawyer'. Or, in the latter stages, investment banker. Bar boredom, I think it'd be fair to say the investment banker enjoying his job (or, least, everything else that comes with it). Similarly, the intern noted that although the money was good, that life could never be for him as he loved culture and art too much. Fair enough.
Could I have been an investment banker? Yes. Lawyer? Yes. Would I have loved doing them? The latter, almost certainly, the former, it was always the money.
When I wanted to leave my former degree (International Politics) to pursue this dream, I knew it meant closing the doors to those rather prestigious graduate jobs that I had worked for in both Law and Investment Banking. And it'd mean starting from scratch. I spoke to my uncle about it and the gist of what he said was
"You can't spend your life doing something that won't make me happy, nor worrying about what your friends are doing. Life is a marathon, not a sprint."
I could be working in an investment bank now, earning that good money (and working sixteen hour days). Or be in Law school, en route to doing a pupilage under one of the most prestigious lawyers in the country.
But instead, I'm writing. And I'm bloody happy doing so. And not doing too badly, either!
Currently listening to: Gym Class Heroes - Live Forever (Fly With Me)
N.B. I really tried so hard to not have to embed the YouTube video. I tried to do something I've seen on blogs where only can only see the play/pause bar with the volume, time etc. If anybody knows how to do this, help me out!
... I failed at making this post concise. I'm sorry, won't happen again.
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