Funding Wanderlust

I am a millennial, but before you grab torches and pitchforks to run me back to my lazy treehouse, hear me out. Yes, many millennials are playing career leapfrog, but very rarely are any of us doing that for fun or because we aren’t capable of holding onto a traditional job. 

 

Millennials were raised as dreamers, and a bit differently than previous generations we grew up in a world where people were going out and proving the cliché to be true. We watched underdogs conquer the world and started thriving with a mantra of “I can do that too”. This beat of ambition became the backdrop for our every dream and we began to see that we didn’t need to settle for the first thing we found or the second best reality.

From a young age I proudly proclaimed that I wanted to be a teacher. I would double major in teaching English and History and become the most beloved teacher to grace the halls of Big Dreams High School. Spoiler alert: That did not happen.

Approximately one day into my college career I was introduced to a degree path in Event Management and, to the utter horror of my parents, I declared that major with pride. I would now be the greatest event planner the world had ever seen and I would either be hired as Taylor Swift’s Tour Coordinator, or manage the Oscars. You know, simple dreams.

So I did it. I resuscitated my parents, and graduated college with a degree in Event Management. I then tried for nine months to find a job before moving home and getting a job folding sweaters. Apparently the rest of the world had not gotten my memo about my big dreams, or Taylor Swift didn’t have my number.

Either way I kept up the hustle and become beloved in my retail job. I love people, so I kept up my job search while also cranking out dreams of becoming a store owner or getting hired as a model. Again, super grounded in reality. Thankfully no one was ever subjected to me attempting to become a model, and one of the 231 applications I submitted finally scored me an interview with a major hotel chain. 

I walked into the 72 story building on my first day with stars in my eyes. Yes, I could see it now. I would run this multi-billion dollar, international hotel empire. It might take five or six years to become CEO, but it would be worth it. Well, maybe not CEO, but I knew in my heart that I would love this job and I would work for this company until I retired gloriously at 65 (that retirement plan might actually be the craziest dream of all).

A year later I was turning in my letter of resignation. Poor interdepartmental communication, a boss who didn’t adore me, and some less than healthy work expectations led me to see that this was not my forever job, and it led me to see that event planning might not be the cake walk I had envisioned.

I then had a promising career as a bank teller for less than three months. Then I went back to retail while I waited for “my next big adventure”. Well funny story retail is not doing well and I was laid off. After a month. So after crying and moving in with my fiancé since I could no longer pay rent, I became a dog walker. Yep. A college educated, worked for huge companies, big dreaming dog walker.

Now in my defense I was applying for sparkly, full time, 401K included jobs throughout this journey, but since you can’t walk up to hiring managers and say “I am wonderful, hard-working, and I will bring in yummy baked goods if you will please just hire me” those applications didn’t pan out.

But don’t worry folks! Just like Jar-Jar I kept bouncing back despite the fact that no one seemed to want me to. My next big dream? Graduate School. That was the key! More education on my resume and people would be beating down my door to beg me to work for them! Five minutes into grad school I decided I could always become a college professor if my big career plans fell through. Teaching college can’t be that hard, right?  

A year after starting my graduate career I was getting antsy. Walking dogs and studying was not using up all the creative energy I was buzzing with, so back to the job hunt full force. Did I mention I also planned to eventually get around to publishing several novels and becoming rich enough to just write for a living? Yeah it’s on my list right after laundry.  

Cue me getting a part time assistant job at a library. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, like many millennials I’m optimistic to a fault. Every small start is a stepping stone on the path to world domination. Working 20 hours a week answering phones quickly led to dreams of running the library. Like many jobs before, I was ready to pledge my heart, soul, and every working day of my life to the job. The fact that I devour books the way most people breathe didn’t hurt

Well after five months of “not like that” and “you’re not qualified for that promotion” I realized that my dream of dying at my desk after 40 or 60 years of passionate work and haunting the library was not how my life was going to go. That realization, and some less than stellar circumstances, led to me leaving to once again pursue “my next great adventure”. Again.

Leaving that job was hard. It hurt. I cried and ate ice cream and cursed the universe…for a day. Then, it was time to get back to dreaming and hustling because I had bills to pay and an unquenchable thirst for working hard at something.

So I finally bumped one of my less-realistic dreams to the foreground and decided that if I couldn’t find a job that fit me, I’d make one. I created my own company, my own logo, and I set out to become the Millennial Marketing Genius I boasted to be on my business cards.

Three weeks after quitting my job I had two clients and a job offer to join an international company and be their marketing go-to girl. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

For those of you who aren’t counting, that was seven jobs in three years, plus two extra (pending) Master’s degrees. So yes, while I may seem like a job-hopping, hot mess millennial, I’m really a hustler with an aversion to giving up.

Will this new adventure be last “new job”? Will I end up working seven more jobs before all is said and done? No clue. What I do know is that I will always be working hard, searching for a way to spend my passion, and dreaming way bigger than anyone thinks I have any right to.