One of my favorite scenes in “Fight Club” is when
Tyler Durden drags a convenience store cashier behind the store,
puts a gun to his head and asks him what he wanted to be when he
was in college. The cashier says he wanted to be a veterinarian.
Tyler takes the cashier’s driver’s license and tells
him that if he’s not on his way to becoming a veterinarian in
six weeks, Tyler will come to his apartment and kill him.
An interesting motivational technique.
I have been thinking about that story as I graduate this week.
That story means something to me because almost all college
students are faced with a choice upon graduation ““ and too
many make the same decision as that cashier.
The way I see it, college graduates face a fork in the road,
with pragmatism in one direction and their dreams in the other. My
case is no different. Because my parents are taking me off their
payroll once I get my diploma, money is a major concern. I must
have my necessities: food, shelter, clothing, books, DVDs and a
social life, which means it may be in my best interest to take the
highest paying job I can find.
But I also want to become a politician. That’s my dream.
And because breaking into politics requires a move to the East
coast and a low-paying job where I can acquire knowledge and gain
experience, the path of optimal financial security is at odds with
such a dream.
Thus I must choose between the two roads, and I’m choosing
politics. Many college graduates, however, choose financial
security and come to regret their decision because their true
passions fall by the wayside while they do the practical thing.
They don’t consciously give up on their dream; they just get
trapped in a life where their dream is no longer feasible.
Many students at UCLA, for example, treat their college
education as a tedious but necessary step to getting a diploma
““ which will ideally translate into a high-paying job. When
students graduate, they either get the job they’re looking
for or trudge on to graduate school, hoping to get a more
prestigious degree and, consequentially, a more lucrative job.
But whatever happened to learning? Too few students take
advantage of their time at UCLA by pursuing areas of study they are
genuinely interested in. Instead, they take classes and choose a
major they may dislike because they are walking the path toward
financial security, even in their late teens and early 20s.
While there’s nothing wrong with seeking financial
security and a practical career, the problem is that by doing so
immediately after you graduate, you are potentially reducing the
chance of ever realizing your tantalizing but risky or impractical
dream. If you get a good job with a steady source of income, it
will be especially difficult to just up and leave it when
you’re nearing 30 and realize you wish you had tried to be a
writer, actor or business owner when you were younger.
By choosing the practical road when you’re only 21 or 22,
you’re creating a lifestyle of dependence where you will
become accustomed to a certain standard of living. And if you have
a spouse or family to support, it will be very difficult to veer
off the practical road to pursue your dream.
But if you pursue your dream straight out of college, while
maybe having a part-time job on the side to pay the bills, the
benefits are great. If your dream doesn’t pan out, at least
it happens while you’re still young and there is plenty of
time to get practical and achieve financial security. In fact, the
worst thing that happens if you pursue your dream right out of
college is that you fail, and have no regrets that you never tried
to become a writer, business owner, actor or professional
bowler.
And of course, there’s always the possibility that your
dream will come true. How great would that be?
So when the time comes to receive your diploma, remember that
the alluring road of pragmatism may steer you permanently away from
your dream destination. Remember that for every day you spend
putting off your dreams in the interest of financial security,
there is another person out there with the same dream who is not
putting it off.
Above all, remember this: it is important to be careful and make
sure you have enough money to be a happy and healthy individual,
but if you are too careful ““ if you’re afraid to take a
chance and follow your impractical dreams ““ your whole life
can become the pursuit of financial security. And there won’t
be any Tyler Durdens to force you to reevaluate your choices.
Burke is a fifth-year political science student and former
Viewpoint editor. E-mail him at dburke@media.ucla.edu. Send general
comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.