“You learn along the way what you’re good at” : Graduating students navigate career passions and uncertainty
Written for The Aquinian
(‘Entangled’, by Incé Husain)
On the brink of new lives, graduating STU students recount the trajectories that led them to settling on their careers, reminisce on their STU education experience, and offer insights for grappling with the uncertainty that graduation can instill.
Katelyn Ryan is graduating with a gerontology degree and a psychology minor, and has applied to Shannex for a recreational therapist position near her hometown of Miramichi. Prior to discovering gerontology, Ryan explored a range of education-oriented degrees. She was initially enrolled in NBCC to pursue a career in early childhood education, then shifted her sights to human resources. But the summer prior to beginning, she volunteered in a nursing home and was entranced by the life stories of the seniors and the idea of being an uplifting presence for them.
“That changed me,” Ryan said of her volunteering experience. “Then I applied to STU (for gerontology) and I got in, and then I was here (at STU). It was a natural decision.”
Though a university degree is not required for nursing home work, Ryan believed it would get her a job above minimum wage, and she was also interested in academically studying gerontology. She reflects on her education at STU with satisfaction, recalling being startled by its extensive nature.
“(The education) went far beyond my expectations,” says Ryan. “I thought it was going to be just stuff that I already knew. There is just all this (specialized material) that you wouldn’t think of… I didn’t know what to expect. I was really happy with all the courses and professors I had for gerontology.”
She shares that uncertainty with career choices may be diffused by talking with professors in the field who have insight into career opportunities opened by certain degrees, as well as connections. She also emphasizes to ultimately follow one’s ideals rather than money, and that it is important to have faith in the unknown.
“Things usually work out. (Your job) should be something you enjoy,” says Ryan. “You can always find a job even if it’s not something you want right away, just to pay the bills. Don’t stress too much about getting your dream job right away because it is coming!”
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Katelyn Irish ‘skipped’ graduation. Though set to graduate from STU in gerontology and human rights this year as a prelude to law school, a COVID-induced pause in her summer job led her to writing the LSAT early. She applied to law school at UNB as a ‘side thought’, but ended up with an acceptance letter.
“I just had to completely restructure my plan and everything I was going to do. It was kind of crazy,” says Irish.
Irish describes the adjustment as startlingly circular, sharing that achieving her goal of getting into law school left her with the same blankness as when she had begun first year.
““When I graduated I thought I was going to go ‘I reached the end, I’m here now’ and (instead) it was ‘oh my god, this is still just the beginning of my life’,” says Irish. “I was like ‘what are my goals? What do I do with this?’ I almost was starting from scratch again. It almost felt like I was in first year university, readjusting to learning, thinking ‘what do I want to do’.”
Irish considers university a transition period, the end of which is heavy with the expectation of being an adult. But she views this ‘dividing line’ of graduation as more of an illusion than a legitimate separation between two stages of life, sharing that the reality of living moment to moment makes the experience counterintuitively continuous.
“I think you feel like it’s these two different stages of your life, but in the moment it just feels like you’re thrown into it. (It’s) more of an illusion because nothing has changed in those few days,” says Irish. “You’re the same person so there’s not really that much difference.”
Irish hopes to merge her interest in gerontology with her law career, considering the idea of ‘health law’. She shares that she had never considered a job that fused gerontology and law, and emphasizes that university opens the floor to an inconceivable scope of possibility.
“There’s just so much more out there than people realize. (Careers) are always combined into one ‘job’ when there are so many (specializations in jobs) out there,” says Irish. “The biggest thing is following what you’re really interested in. You learn along the way what you’re good at.”
She considers her education at STU to have exceeded her expectations, particularly in nurturing her as a critical thinker. She shares that this advantaged her in how she approaches law, enabling her to not only memorize and learn the material but ask fundamental questions about the discipline, such as the pitfalls of its framework.
Irish shares that she grapples with uncertainty and stress by first becoming comfortable with the feelings, and then following her gut and interests. In hindsight, she would have appreciated being a bit less future-oriented to give more room for living fulfillingly in the present.
“The biggest thing I would have told myself is also just to have fun. (Careers) are so future-focused that I feel like I didn’t take as much time to just be in the moment and appreciate where I am.”
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Dr. Gül Çalışkan, professor of Global Sociology at STU, had initially pursued a career in urban and regional planning but found that her ‘burning questions’ about human rights and social inequality prevented her from completing the practical pursuit. She dove into sociology, completing her PhD at York university.
With extensive hindsight, she encourages students to find stability by seeking wisdom from those with different life experiences, and to trust the process of naturally coming to one’s strengths.
“Spend time connecting and being with people of wisdom… who have gone through different struggles (and) experiences,” says Çalışkan. “(Society) is structured by generations, and there are very few interconnections among generations. It is important for older people who have been (through these experiences) to say “you’re okay” to younger generations.”
She emphasizes that education will always serve as a tool for students that might only be fully realized later, and that self-awareness in the moments of learning may be crucial in unlocking passions later in life.
“Pay attention to the key moments in your education,” says Çalışkan. “Those are the moments that sparked something in you, turned a switch in your head, impacted you. Pay attention to those. They will always be with you, and click elsewhere in life… Trust the process and the time. You will find your strength and what you are good at.” ♦
A modified version of this article appeared in The Aquinian on March 27th, 2022: