The Career Centre Blog Contest

By: Resi Walt, Peer Advisor

Last semester, the Career Centre held a contest and we asked the Laurier student body to answer this question in the form of a blog entry: “What did you want to be when you were a child and how does that compare to your career aspirations now?”

In true Goldenhawk style, we received some amazing responses! I would like to take this opportunity to share the winning submission, as well as others that came in a close second.

Laura VanZant was the winner of the blog contest, with the following entry:

“As a child I was a loner who was far too into books and constantly wanted to grow up and magically become my favourite fictional characters. From age six to twelve I firmly believed I could be Hermione Granger when I grew up. Now, I am studying history with the intention of getting my Master’s degree in Librarian Sciences. In my own way I am still becoming Hermione, and devoting my life to the dusty and knowledge-filled shelves of libraries. Just like her, I will be surrounded by books all day long, and will hopefully be able to sneak them off the shelves occasionally for a quick peek. All this time, I have been like the character of Hermione, and the reason I wanted to be her as a child is a result of me being able to relate to her. I can still relate to her, and that is why my career choices are strangely similar to her actions in the Harry Potter books. I find it funny that I am now able to grow up and become what I wanted to be all along, albeit without the full body switch.”

What a heart-warming response! Thank-you Laura! As well, thank-you to everyone who took the time to submit such thoughtful responses. It was truly a pleasure to read all the submissions, which ranged from a creative writer inspired by marine science, a pianist who dreamed of performing at Carnegie Hall, and someone motivated to become a mechanic based on an important message sent to him by his grandfather.

After reading all the different entries, it struck me that as a child you let your dreams and imagination run wild. You do not have a sense of the impossible; there are no limits to your career aspirations. So what changes as you get older? You start to place boundaries on yourself. Through reading the blog entries, I realized that if you try, you CAN incorporate your dreams and passions into your career path. Just because we are older, and have a more realistic understanding of the world, does not mean that we should dismiss our dreams.