Original Image Source: fajaws- Pixibay- Modified by @saydie
Once in our life, we were but a child- innocent and filled with different dreams. Some of which we still carry up to this date but there are also some that we set aside due to different circumstances, change directions due to growing up and learning new things or eventually forget it as long years has passed. One of those dreams that I had as a child was to become an Astronaut as I had a love of Science and technology, including stuff related to space which are further influenced by movies such as Star Trek and E.T., thinking that it would be cool to travel across the space while riding a spaceship. Perhaps, discovering a new place for humans to live, finding new resource that we can use or meet other living organisms that are sentient and we can communicate, maybe even make a friendly relationship. I hold this dream job of mine to at least early in my high school years but as I learn more, its become clear to me that it was not a career that I could pursue even if I have the financial means to study it.
A Unarchivable Dream
Growing up, I realized that the dream of becoming an Astronaut was harder to achieved than what it seems. Not only that one needs to be strong physically to endure the changes in gravity and emotionally to be able stay in the outer space for long periods of time far away from family and friends, one also needs to be really smart and skilled on different fields like Engineering and Technicians so that you know how to fix the ship or Astrophysics and Astrobiology to examine how humans react to different environment and to know the various laws and principles of physics to observe the planets and any extraterrestrial matters. Aside from that, there are only very few countries that was capable of sending people to space. As you know, building a single spacecraft can cost millions, even billions of dollars just to build one not to mention that it would also take many years to develop due to its size, which a developing country like mine would find it hard to support.
Studying to be an Astronaut would also be a difficult task because it was not offered in my country, given that it was a job not available in the country. Going overseas might be an option to others but not for me who find even finishing my degree difficult due to financial difficulties but even if they can, the countries that can offer space exploration would less likely to hire them, not because they are racist but because it was run by that countries' government and they would avoid a potential leak of information to other countries that could potentially harm the interest of its citizens. There were some private space agencies like the SpaceX of Elon Musk but with them so very few, landing the job would most likely be even harder.
Source: RDNE Stock project- Pexels
Towards My Career Path
Realizing that I won't be able to work for my dream job, my life could not just stop there so I need move on and to think of something else to do before I reach college. At first, I was thinking of careers related to that like Meteorologist or Physicist but that also have very little demand and while there are schools locally that offer the course, it was not something that I could attend without moving locations which our finances would find it difficult to sustain. At the same time, the social platform known as Friendster was still a huge hit back then where you can write the code using HTML in order to customize it which is very similar to most markdown codes that we use to design our blog and that was my introduction to programming which as we know, Spaceships together with other space equipment, requires software programs so that they can run and this is where I decided what path to pursue and take a computer course. It does not necessarily mean that I would be working on anything space- related but the work in itself involves creating new programs and technologies which can improved the life of people which if you have read my previous post about Artificial Intelligence, we made a device that could potentially reduce the car accidents due to drunkenness if it was improved and developed further and the fact that computers have become a large part of many industries makes it flexible for taking other jobs.
Image Taken by Me
Though nothing seems to work as we planned and the jobs that I took does not involved working on a program by previously working a leadership role on a retail industry and my current profession now as an I.T. staff that even if it was related to my course, was more focused on networking and computer hardware. It does not mean that the job makes it easier and though we do not code, we also make this network configurations where one wrong move and we can potentially paralyze the whole company as most of its transactions was done and save on a computer. Since, it hasn't been that long since I get the job, there might be difficult task and situations that I have yet to experience.
As kids, we once dreamed of a job that that we want to take and while some may be able to get their dream job, there were people like me that needs to compromise but one thing is for sure, no matter what job or career does one person take, as long that it was not illegal or dirty job, we should take pride on it because it allows us to provide for our needs and support the people close to us without the need to steel or hurt others.
Thank you for reading my post and see you at the next one!