I believe that this is one of the most think that teenagers think about during their studies. And I gotta be honest, this has crossed my mind also many times. Is this study going to bring me where I want to go? Should I switch studies? So here is what I did..
I love photography but I never chose to actually do this study.. Why? Well I know many photographers who did photography and could not make a living on it. This is absolutely not to encourage you not to do it, if you want to do it, do it but give all your best! I had the idea to do another study, something in another passion of mine and if I had the talent I could become a fulltime photographer without the study.
This other passion of mine was horses, these creatures have always fascinated me, especially in front of my lens! So my thought was.. What if I do a business study specialised on the horse industry and then try to combine the two? I mean if I look back that wasn’t such a bad idea..
So here is what I did.. this study was only given in Velp. Velp is a village close to Arnhem, 2,5 hours travelling for me. So I went on rooms in Arnhem, I had a very nice room and beautiful furniture, but.. I just did not feel at home there.. not in the room and neither in Arnhem. I had a lot of motivation to finish this study and so I moved back home and I travelled every schoolday 5 to 6 hours in total. “Where a wil is, is a way”
Last summer, after I finished my second year of this study I went to the Gorges du Verdon (the grand canyon of France) to work as an animator on a camping. I already knew at that time that I loved travelling, that I loved France and that I had an interest for tourism. However, I never thought of working in the tourism segment until that point.. I noticed myself enjoying telling people the beautiful places in the region, the most beautiful hikes, the best things to do with children and also receiving the tourists and making them feel welcome. That was the point where I realised, I want to do something in tourism.
The thing was.. I was doing a study specialised on horses.. Luckily my study was really broad and it has been seen before that old students will do something different as work, such as working at a bank. This was also the thing that broke the knot for me when choosing a study. So I decided not to switch, to continue with this study and force myself to listen to the lectures which were not interesting to me, because I still had to pass these tests.. And then find an internship in the tourism segment ABROAD! My tips on going abroad can be found in this blog and my tips about choosing between internships can be found here…
So my advice is: Listen to your heart, do what you love, but also think about what you would like to do in the future and then use these two to choose a study that fits your passions and desires. Do you not really know yet what you want to do, search for a study in your field of interest which is broad so you have many ways to go :)
XOXO Lisa
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