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In reply to the discussion: Professor: ‘Follow your dreams’ is cruel advice [View all]RobinA
(9,888 posts)I agree with this completely. I changed careers a couple of times after a variety of derailments. One derailment involved going into a career but not in the area of that career that I chose it for. I wanted to be a paralegal in public interest law, but I wound up in litigation because "there are no jobs in public interest," which was true. I hung out in litigation for years working for a big company and not liking it. I was eventually laid off, which caused me to get back into my very first career choice, mental health. I obtained a Masters degree, which I never thought I would do. I don't make a lot of money, will just barely (maybe) recoup the cost of my degree, and have not done some things that I would have been able to do with a higher salary. But I am proud of what I do, which I never was in a litigation department of a computer company, and I feel like there's a reason to come to work.
I agree that the "follow you dreams" rhetoric is a little off base and does set some people up for disappointment, but I also think that combining reality with dreams and reasonable expectations can just work out with luck and decent play of the cards you're dealt.