When someone asks a child what they want to be when they grow up, the answers are invariably that he or she wants to be a police officer, a firefighter, a political leader, a doctor, or a teacher. Although it may seem like this is a pretty large repertoire of jobs, there is really one recurring theme: These are all jobs that make a difference. Everybody wants to know that they’re making an impact on the world, and my career aspirations have always followed this basic rule.

Of course, being a police officer, or a firefighter is really not in the cards for me. Why? The answer is really an extension to the idea of making an impact. If someone wants to make an impact, they need to be effective at whatever they do. Being from a family that has really exonerated the merits of hard work, there has always been a pressure to perform, and I was instilled with a competitive mindset at a very young age. The need to be effective, efficient, and productive has been even greater than the most basic need instilled by the desire to make an impact.

Those were both criteria that really apply to everyone, but there is more that has really narrowed it down for me. The first is another effect of the competitive environment and mindset I’ve grown accustomed to, and it is the notion of success. Whatever career path I eventually take, provided it is by my choice, will invariably be one a lucrative one, simply by virtue of the inherent non-virtue of humanity in the form of pride and greed. Although it seems greedy, I would prefer to lead a comfortable life, and that’s all there is to it.

Moreover is a need for change and progress. Although it may see stereotypical, there have always been people pushing medicine as a career path, and being a doctor definitely has its merits. A doctor definitely changes people’s lives, and I think that, had there been a desire, I could’ve been a good doctor, but really, no career path in medicine really appeals to me. The day-to-day doctor leads a comfortable, lucrative life, and yet, every day at work is the same comfortable, lucrative life. Although this may be a generalization, and perhaps entirely false, what I’ve gathered from previous experiences, the image that has built itself in my mind, is that of the quiet waiting room, and a line of patients, all with different ailments yet doing the same thing, walking in and out of the doctor’s room like an assembly line of objects, in and out, in and out. While stability is crucial at home, at work it seems more like stagnation, and while family is something that one never tires of, a boring workplace is something that one can tire of very quickly.

The easy alternative to this would appear to be the life of a surgeon, or a more intensive doctor, but to live the life of a surgeon is almost to give up life at home. Being on call constantly, or working nights in a hospital, means giving up time that you could spend with your family, at home with your loved ones, and even when you are at home, any mistakes that have been made at work will always follow you home. There is no escape from work, no detachment from past mistakes.

This was actually the reasoning behind why I didn’t want to be a diplomat anymore years ago. At first, it seemed like the perfect job. As a Chinese Canadian

who spoke three languages, and who had been exposed to many different cultures, I thought I could do well as a diplomat, and what job could be more exciting then one where you would move from country to country? However, the fantasy was shattered one day when I looked to the future. What could I do when I had a family, when I had children? Would I force my kids to change countries, to leave their friends, to leave everything behind constantly?

As my life continued, I would find more and more career paths that would be a near fit, yet not what I was looking for. Finally, the career paths that I'm seriously considering are ones that have been brought up by people very close to me.

The first career path that I am truly considering right now is to work my way into the stock market. One day, as my sister explained the workings of the stock market, and the buying and selling of bonds, I realized how fascinating it was that there were so many levels that the average person didn't know about. Having always had a predisposition towards math, it wasn't a system that was too hard to grasp, as everyone had an important role in their own right. As soon as the job was described to me, I thought that the role of an analyst was fascinating. After all, it seems to be a series of research projects and conclusions, truly a chance to just learn and learn constantly. From my understanding, it's a job that, though incredibly work-intensive at first, lightens up on the workload later on, which is really when it matters anyway.

The second career path that I've really been considering came to me as a combination from my other sister and my father. My other sister is starting a career in law, and the intricacies of the legal system just seem so amazing. For example, I had learned a while back that my father did consulting work, and I knew that my family owned a company. I learned later on that the company, though it didn't do much on a day-to-day basis, the initial investment of buying a company was far outweighed by the benefits of simply registering taxes under a company's name instead of an individual. It's always amazed me to learn that there are these ways of life that are so easily applicable to everyday life that most people simply wouldn't know about, and the legal system is a vast well of information and amazing things to learn and know about.

Not only do these two career paths have their own intricacies, their own quirks, that really give these careers their personalities, they also simultaneously help to provide a benefit to society, and equally importantly, a benefit to my immediate family, the people I truly care about. Even during the short time I've been on this Earth, I've had quite a number of different career aspirations, but when it comes down to it, they all simply didn't fit, whether it be because of their relative instability, or in fact that they were too stable, too stagnant. After a number of years of searching and slowly narrowing down my options, it’s come down to either a line of work in law or the stock market, and I await eagerly the moment at which I finally take the step into solidifying my desire for the future.