Comments on: Career advice from a college drop-out

By: Jessie

Jessie — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:32:54 +0000

That’s great advice Ella, people shouldn’t do what is expected of them just to impress their parents/teachers/friends, they should do something because they love to do it. Kinda obvious really, but funny how many people hate their job. Especially those people who work all day in cubicles and complain they feel like the ants that the fat cats are stepping all over…do something about it!! Anyway, as the saying goes “Nobody on their deathbed wished they spent more time at the office”.

By: Ella

Ella — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:58:48 +0000

Katherine: That whole “Ohhh, so you want to be a mooovie star!” thing is so irksome. Fame is incidental. It’s not like you pick up a copy of New Idea one day, thumb through the red carpet pics and think “That looks like fun; I’ll be an actor!” (Well, maybe some people do… this whole “wanting fame for fame’s sake” is such a weird phenomenon.)

I remember telling my year 10 careers adviser that I wanted to be an actor, and him giving me a look that was equal parts incredulity, pity and amusement. After that, I would always qualify my aspirations with some kind of self-deprecating remark. “I know it’s a total cliche,” I’d say, “but I want to perform.” Who cares if it’s a cliche, or difficult, or mega competitive? You could say that about a heap of different career paths.

And you’re right: life is just one big crazy experiment. Let’s light the bunsen burner and get fired up!

Jayce: All care, no responsibility. But that only applies if something bad happens. In the inevitable event of your raging success, I will claim full credit for inspiring you.

By: Jayce

Jayce — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:55:24 +0000

If I quit my job today, be it on your head.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:08:12 +0000

I was also fed the neurotic assurance in high school that if I expected any success in life, I needed to go through a prestigious university degree. Ironically, it was around the time year twelve started that I began to take it with a grain of salt. So screw that, I was skipping classes and continuing to pursue acting, thank you very much. I got a great drama result and with no effort whatsoever, average results in my other classes. I would have enjoyed learning about my other subjects had they been remotely about learning rather than grades, standards, exams and beating each other out.
It’s quite a logical thing when you think about it. You see so many thirty or forty or fifty year olds coming to acting for the first time, or whatever career it is they discarded when they were younger. No financial reward or as you said, societal cred, has made up for what they didn’t do. You can’t cheat yourself like that.
I’m finding myself already broke to the point of embracing free meals where I can, getting the disapproving looks and comments when I say I’m an actor (“Oh, you’re going to be a movie star? Right…” “No, actually. I’m an actor.”) and occasionally wishing for some kind of secure path forward. But at the end of the day, I’m beyond glad to the point of almost relieved that I escaped the brainwashed notions of what to do with my life. It’s all an experiment., not a formulated secret to the correct end.