Tag: goals

I just finished another episode of 13 reasons why. When people talk about the show, they usually talk about the kids in school. How they were mean and didn’t care. One thing I noticed more relatable were the teachers and adults. It made think about my time in school before attending college.

Choosing what high school to go to was hard for me. In Norway, choosing a high school is like college. They look at your grades. The schools has different “majors” like college, where you can choose between for example music, media, athletics or just a “plain one” where you got a specific selection of subjects to choose from. As long as all the “majors” have a specific amount of “plain” subjects like english and math for example, you can still choose to go a normal college, even if you didn’t attend the “plain” major (hopefully that made sense).

I had pretty good grades. I guess I could have attended almost any school I wanted. My parents wanted me to go this prestigious private school that had a really good reputation. Their friends kids went there, and their parents had a lot of good things to say about it. I applied just to have my options available, and got accepted into the school early. That was also the year with the most applicants the school had received.

I, on the other hand, wanted to go to a different school just to take a media “major”. I don’t really have to explain why, do I? I loved film, photography, writing, graphic design… All of it. The school I wanted to go to also had a good reputation, but the media major was easier to get into. A lot of unmotivated students apply for these types of majors, because they are “tired of school” and just wants to have fun in high school. That’s why some people told me to avoid it, but I didn’t really wanna listen.

I remember telling one of the counsellors in middle school about my dilemma. I didn’t know what to choose. She just shrugged her shoulders and said something like “You can attend any normal college after high school if you choose a media major”, as if it didn’t really matter what I chose. And that’s the “advice” I got. She didn’t ask me any questions. She didn’t ask about grades, what was important to me or anything. Maybe it’s just me who is very passionate about these kind of things and could talk to someone about why they chose their major for hours. But isn’t it the school counsellor job to help guide the students to make good choices in life? It’s just… She didn’t seem very passionate about her job, I guess.

Then – let’s skip to my senior year. I already had a career within the media business and pretty good grades, and had a plan for my “after high school”-life. I was ambitious and very excited about my plans. I remember sitting next to one of my teachers on one of the last days of high school, and she asked me what my plans were. When I told her I was going to both college and keep working on my career, she looked at me unsurely and said something like “Isn’t that a bit too much?” with a really monotone tone in her voice. You should have seen her face expression. She just looked at me so… Weirdly. And the way she said it – way to motivate your students, to say at least! Luckily that only made me more motivated to prove that I could do it, though.

This is one of the reasons to why being passionate (or at least like) your job is important – especially when you have such an impact! As a teacher your goal should be to motivate your students and make sure they have possibility to reach their fullest potential. I really liked my teachers in elementary school. I feel like they really saw me, and wanted to help me get better. They challenged me. One day I want to go back to my old hometown and thank them for setting such a great basis for me and my life. You could see that they really cared about their students.

I don’t regret choosing the media major, but I do wish a teacher would have helped me looking at what options were good for me. I guess I didn’t see how important it was for me to go to class with someone smarter than me. How much more safer I would feel. How I should be pushed to my greatest extend. Because later I did realize that I went to a school with class mates who didn’t really care that much about their grades (or media, for that matter), and I lost a lot of motivation to that. Luckily I met 3 amazing friends who had a good work ethic, but I don’t know what I would do if they had not end up in my class.

This is one of many reasons why Career Material is important to me. I want you to know and feel how important your future is. I want to inspire you every single day, and remind you how important your goals and potential are. How anything is possible if you just do something about it. I hope my blog posts, videos and myself just in general will make you get some good vibes about your future, and see your own potential. If I only can help one of you to do that, I’ve completed an important mission. It’s true though, what they say about life: You are your only limit. And you can’t rely on other people in your life. Please do know, that your future is important.

Me (to the left) the first year of high school with my new high school bestie named Bea at an event with Bikbok. Good times, tho ❤️