Friday, May 26, 2006
.:wharton/college:.
now that the first year of university is behind me I have a nice perspective to reflect on the year. Truth be told, I hated Wharton. Nothing wrong with the school in the least, it just didn't seem like a good fit. Near the end of second semester I deeply considered switching to the college. I had my parents behind me, I even had composed the first email to get the ball rolling. Of course, I still was't positive. Give up a degree the best business school? And what would I study? I couldn't defunct in order to study philosophy--my parents would have killed me and I could have done that at UVA for a fraction of the cost (see, I do have a wharton inside whether or not I admit it). So then perhaps I'd study PPE (politics, philosophy and economics). When touring Penn I actually was drawn to that college major, so not a bad choice. Then I started to think, so what do I want to do with that type of degree. Go to law school. Then what? Go work for a firm? Sure, sounds like a fine path, but what did I want to do with that law degree? Whom did I want to help? Did I just want to make lots of money and screw any sense of a social contract? Not really. That isn't too say I didn't want to make lots of money, just that it wasn't my main goal. So what did I want to do????
Pressing question that many college students find themselves being asked by everyone on the planet. But it doesn't matter what I tell someone else and I don't even care what another thinks of my career choice. What matters is what I want to do, and finding that answer for myself is much harder. So, here is the path of questions and soul searching I walked. If it helps you, great. If it doesn't, sorry. :(
We don't pick a lifetime job anymore. We pick career paths. Those paths perhaps for some are a single entity, and perhaps for some of us, those paths are as varied as the stars in the sky. So, what interests me? Tons of things. But what was there that I enjoyed, that I could talk for hours about and still not be finished. What inspired a passionate revolution of my mind and soul? Retail answered the first. Helping the poor answered the second. Of course, both of those are very broad categories, but that is fine. So, I could help the poor through a PPE degree. And I could go into retail with a creative liberal arts degree. But let's look at my desire to have an impact on the lives of the world's poorest people. I could join the peace corps (great organization), I could run tons of missions through my church, I could be in an essence, I complete hippie. (I'm pretty much already there so that wouldn't be a far leap.) But that is helping on a very micro- level. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yet I want to have a bigger impact on a bigger scale. I could rally on Capitol Hill with the thousand of other lobbists, or I could join some politically active group. All those are options that many people have taken. Yet you know. Not many of those people are business people and perhaps they don't speak the language of "suits". Microfinacing is a new and intriguing way to help the poor help themselves. Poverty doesn't equate to slothness. And sholving food and clothing to provide basic supplies works, yes. But at some point, they need economies. They need small loans to start small businesses like food carts. We're not talking about $1 million loans to start restaurants. We're talking about $1000 (if even) loans to start food carts. A degree in political science would put me in a position to help, sure. But in a way, it's a sort of fluff understanding of the influences. Money is what makes the world go 'round. So why not use money to help. And where best to learn about money? Wharton.
Of course I have neglected my other joy--retail. The way I explained it to a friend--I have a lifetime to make money and I also have a lifetime to help others. So why not actually get money first by working at a higher paying job and then go off on my globe trotting help-the-poor mission? Because I also have a biological clock. I don't want to lug kids around the globe. And I figure I'll have a few careers in my life so switching is not a bad idea. It doesn't make sense to spend years a lot of time and energy to prepare for something that I might want to possibly to in 20 years. Hell I might get hit by a bus tomorrow. However, that doesn't mean to serach for the greatest good in the nearest future. We do plan for tomorrow and the day after. So a college degree should be useful, but that doesn't mean I have to taylor my life career to that one degree. Plan for the next 5 to 10 years and reevaluate down the road if this is where I should be. So after I've walked down this path of helping others, perhaps I'll venture over to the Retail path. Who knows.
For right now, I'm loving Wharton. In fact, Bri and I were the face of Wharton in its debut as the Number One b-school in Business Week.
on the ipod: imogen heap
art: my photos from italy (soon to be posted)
