3 Ways I Deal with External Doubt Surrounding my Career Choice

Stephanie Fischer
5 min readJul 10, 2020
Credits to Cierra Lux via Flickr.com

Society has inherently adapted these values that uphold some career paths over others; we’ve decided which college majors are worth pursuing and which are a waste of time.

I thought I had to be something impressive or “important” like a doctor or a lawyer. But it turns out I can be something impressive like a curator, artist, or writer.

However, my journey in self-doubt started my senior year of high school while preparing to begin my college applications. Throughout my whole childhood I wanted to be an interior designer, I would occasionally change my mind to being a princess, but for the overwhelming majority of the time — I wanted to design. So, when it came time to apply for college, I searched for schools that offered a major in interior design or similar field. I ended up applying to a variety of schools with intended majors in Architecture, Interior Design, and Studio Art.

I remember the first time I received backlash from someone — it stuck, it hit me hard.

My high school tennis team was having a family cookout and end of the year party. All the seniors were talking about their plans for the upcoming year: Computer Science, Pre-Med, Studio Art…

*Queue team mom interjecting her unsolicited opinion*

--

--

Stephanie Fischer

Art, psychology, life, and more. Art writer who aims to explore the lives of artists and deepen understanding of art.