Surprise! You Can Love What You Do and Still Make a Living
By Peeriya Pongsarigun
Toddlers’ art and early writing skills are almost the same. Babies start scribblingwriting and they just create art! Many of us love drawing but sometimes this skill gets neglected over time. We grow up and are busy pursuing our dreams. We want to have a career and not many of us can make a living by drawing.
I found this name card at Jason James’ station at Cool Jobs 2019. He told the seventh-graders to design a logo which represented themselves. The card read, “Art — because I like art, but I want to be a nurse.”
It says a lot for me.
At school, children learn about conventional careers like a doctor, a nurse, and a teacher first. Smart kids have been told many times they could become a doctor because they are smart, and doctors are smart people. The idea that smart kids should pursue conventional careers that are high-paid and respected by the society fossilizes children’s freedom and dreams. Who knows? The kid who designed this ‘logo’ could become the world’s greatest artist if she keeps drawing, or she can focus more on studying to become a nurse. Who knows?
Cool Jobs 2019 introduced seventh graders to people doing real jobs they didn’t know existed and showed them the paths to these jobs. In my opinion, it has done its mission. The kid who wrote this card now knows there are careers in art out there. There are real people doing real jobs. Cool Jobs showed her options. She may become a nurse who loves drawing and sell her work. Some day she may decide drawing will be her career and make a living from it.
Sometimes you can choose two at a time, and you can choose again if you don’t like what you have chosen.
There are always options and the artists at Cool Jobs are more than willing to guide the kids, and that’s the beauty of it.
Peeriya Pongsarigun is a translator and an (almost) children’s book author from Thailand. She wants to translate more Thai books into English and have them published in the USA.
