Immigrant Parents & Societal Expectations
You ever just want peace and quiet, you ever want to just sit and think about what you desire in life without someone else telling you how you should live your life? If the answer is yes, then you are probably the child of immigrants.
The amount of pressure put on first-generation children to succeed is immense. We never even get time to think about what we want to do with our lives before getting college shoved down our throat. Can’t forget we only have three career options: doctor, teacher or lawyer or else you’ll be a failure. Success is the only option and if you fail, you better start praying. I remember growing up my parents and my family members told me college is the only way out. I had no other option but to go to college, graduate and get a “secure job.” I realize now more than ever, after COVID struck us, job security is not a real thing it’s something we’ve been conditioned to believe because it’s what our parents deem to be successful.
As a child, you get told no so many times, you see your dreams diminish right before your eyes, you get shut down more times then you can remember all to be conditioned to what society wants you to be. Why as children aren’t we told about other avenues we can take? College isn’t for everyone and we need to start getting comfortable with that as the rise of bootcamps appear, gig economy and other entrepreneurial ventures grow. We see now more and more that degrees are becoming less valuable. We go to college and graduate to make our parents happy and end up in thousands of dollars in debt all to live a life we don’t want to live. A life we aren’t passionate about, a life where we simply go through the motions. This is one of the reasons I wrote my book and why I chose to leave my job recently.
In case you needed a reminder to start living your life on your terms here you go: Life although in retrospect may be long, it is very short. I wrote my book to give young people the opportunity to feel as if they can live life on their terms. It is okay to be unsure, to be lost but don’t stay somewhere you don’t want to be. You deserve happiness it is your birthright. You deserve to love what you are doing. You shouldn’t be waking up everyday hating your life because your job sucks. You need to let go of any self limiting beliefs that have been imposed on you by others and start creating new empowering beliefs in order to manifest the life you desire.
Realistically, I quit my job because I was unhappy. I wasn’t fulfilled. I loved the people I was working with. I liked the company culture but my position was not fulfilling for me. It didn’t align with my lifes purpose as the days went by I felt my light getting dimmer and dimmer. I felt less motivated to get up and get out of bed in the morning. You need to make the decision for yourself and put yourself first because no one else can do that for you. I was being told by everyone to stay until I received my next offer but I couldn’t because I knew I valued my happiness and my peace of mind more then coming to a job only for a paycheck. From that day forward I realized I could never just work for a company for a paycheck, that’s me doing a disservice to them and to myself. With so many options and opportunities in this world you have to have faith that something is out there for you and if not, you create those opportunities for yourself.
Stop letting your parents, your family or society dictate how you should live your life. Choose you. Choose your dreams and desires. It won’t be easy but would you rather live a life filled with regret or a life filled with risk taking to live out the life of your dreams? Are you going to continue playing it safe or will you go big? You deserve to allow yourself to dream big.
