“Growing up, the strongest shaper of where I am today has been being a woman.” says K, 41-year-old a librarian at an esteemed university in California.
Kwas raised in New York, where she was known to be the “smart kid” at school, and at the time, her dream was to become a scientist, as she loves to solve problems. As a matter of fact, one of her biggest inspirations was Doctor Who, as she discovered one night with her family watching TV, noting “it’s like some dude in a scarf getting chased by killer tumbleweeds…hooked.”
However, being the first person in her family to go to college, and facing many obstacles along the way including dealing with unemployment, changes of location, and battling celiac disease, K’s dream to become a scientist was put on hold. While her American Dream did not come into fruition as originally planned, she was also constantly bombarded with questions from family and friends, regarding “When are you going to get married?” and “When are you going to have kids?” This has led K to a revelation about how she feels none of these expectations should matter as long as you are happy with where you are in life.
“It should be okay for people to change their minds. It should be okay for people to veer off the course.”
Following her parents’ dream for her to surpass them in terms of education, K went on to attend a private high school, undergraduate studies at an esteemed Northeast university, and then graduate school at another university in the Northeast, one of the top programs in the US.
Graduate school was the turning point for K in terms of reworking her American Dream. “Maybe this is not what I should be doing and I’m just doing this because I was tracked for this.”
Additionally, the 2009 economic crisis sealed the deal for K, as she came to terms with abandoning her dream and moved to the South to become a librarian.
“I’m at this age where you stop caring what people think after a certain point.” says K, reflecting on how she got to where she is today. She is much more content with her current job, and still gets to work in the field of science while avoiding the high-pressure environment of the lab.
“It should be okay for people to change their minds. It should be okay for people to veer off the course.” K has challenged this traditionalist mindset of people growing up with set trajectories for their life, based on the so-called American Dream. “I really kind of hope that one day, that won’t have to be the case.”
K is…
- 41 Years-Old
- Female, Cisgender
- White
- Upper Middle Class
- Heterosexual
