To talk about myself especially concerning my future seemed a bit daunting. Self-reflection as it is does not come easy. In Richard N. Bolles’ book, “What Color is your Parachute?” he introduces the Flower Petal Exercise in which he lays out an activity that aims to help the participant explore their wants and needs in their career/life.

I think a lot of the reasons we find ourselves unable to accurately portray our opinions on life is not having a real grasp on variety throughout the world. To broadly generalize, most college students have lived in two places. Their hometown and the place where they went to college. While the breadth of opportunity and people vary greatly, the worldview still appear very limited in most cases.

Upon doing this exercise, I found myself struggling. Questions of location, people, knowledge and salary were not things I had even considered as I assume most things work out at some point in time. While that is not the best way to think about life, I am glad that this ‘project’ gave me a structured outlook on my wants.

I decided to start with people as that was the first petal. I’ve worked more part-time minimum wage jobs than I would care to admit. In my first employment at Olde Town Restaurant in Trumbull, Connecticut, I hated it. I worked mainly with people much older than me who had already been broken down by the negativity of life. Niceties were lackluster and the overall pessimism and uncaring made the environment horrible. Skipping forward about 3 years, I began to work in a taco truck. This environment was much better than the previous. Despite working 12 hour days 6-7 days a week over the summer, I never hated going to work. While the tacos were great, It was the people that I worked with who made it worth it. They were funny, nice, and did not find time in our long day to complain incessantly about their lives. It was through this comparison that I understood that I like to surround myself with positive and funny people in the workplace environment rather than those who keep their heads down and perpetuate monotony.

For a workplace environment, I found this easy as I would much prefer to work at home. Getting dressed up in a dress shirt, pants, and tie sucks. Anyone who says its fun is lying to themselves. Additionally, anyone who says they like working in a cubicle is also lying. It reminds me of the Panopticon. Very Scary. My house just speaks to me as a calming place. Especially right now as my room gets natural light pouring in and it fully immerses me in any work I am doing. Maybe I just really like sunlight. I have found however, that I really do not care as long as I am relatively left alone when I want to be and also able to be community based when the time comes. As long as I do not have to wear a tie.

My favorite skills are most typically those that relate to writing. I am not sure if I would consider myself good but it is probably the only thing I have. I like to write in my free time and honestly have very little passion for anything else. If I were to be put into a work environment where I did not write, I do not believe I would be able to enjoy my work. Writing certainly serves as a good skill for me, and it encompasses many of the sub ‘genres’ of the skill such as research and editing which further separate me from the pack.

I do not know if I have a purpose yet. I would just like my work to mean something to somebody despite whatever field it may be in. As long as somebody is impacted, positively, I will be satisfied with what I do in my life. I wish I could be more specific and have a more amplified goal, but I feel far too young to dedicate my life to a purpose. In the last month I have changed my opinions about a million things. One thing stays true that I hope to put positivity out in the world.

Monetarily, I just hope to make enough to support myself. I have never really cared about money or having everything in life. As long as I am able to be satisfied with the life I have, I cannot complain. As I have never made over 15,000 in a year, I believe it would be ignorant to assume what type of money would make me happy. Hopefully, for benefits they take care of everything and 100% match my 401k.

Location wise I would like to stay South where it is warm but most likely will not due to more journalism career opportunities being concentrated towards the North. It does however deserve to be said that despite this I do plan on moving South once I have my career more fortified. As long as it is sunny and urban I can not see myself complaining about the location and as someone who wants to operate more freely in their career I see weather playing an important part in where I would like to stay. Additionally, a more urban environment that is fast paced is definitely more geared to my style which will hopefully further allow me to operate in a manner that is conducive to emotional upkeep.