Rat-Race Incoming

I came to a very sudden realisation. I need to decide rather quickly what I want to do with my life after school. I do still have time, but technically speaking, all the choices I make from now on have a lot of importance. The curriculum I choose for my master's, the internships and the jobs I take on. It all adds up to either a coherent path or being all over the place.

Right now, my CV is looking rather messy. I have a bit of everything but no specialisation whatsoever. I speak three languages, have leading skills in a military environment and also a technical (scientific) background. Furthermore, I enjoy organising events and DJ'ing whilst being the treasurer of the student council.

My point citing all of that, is to say that I am a jack of all trades yet master of none. It is great, and I am not complaining whatsoever. Yet a feeling persists – I have no clear selling point for myself, just a bunch of small good skills. This weekend, I decided to reflect on my future more. I did not get too far, but I got somewhere. I cleared out how the two following school years will look like.

For my fourth year, I will be in Lille getting more specialised in school. All while being the treasurer for the student council and organising events for BPM,. For my fifth and last year of school I want to do the first semester of Erasmus (location to be defined) and the other semester I would like to do a professionalisation internship (6-month internship).

I have also realised that I would like to start my professional career in Paris after my fifth year. All of this is already some main ideas to follow, which is great. Now I just have to figure out all the rest. The fluff.

To help me reflect, I was inspired by the Odyssey plan. This is a simple exercise of projecting oneself five years forward.

• First projection – the most probable path, considering the current situation, how would things turn out?
• Second projection – alternative path. What if you never went down the path you did, as in different studies, different work, different people?
• Third and final projection – what if the social norms and money were no obstacle? What would you do?

The idea behind is to not spend huge chunks of time thinking but to simply blurt out everything in around five minutes per question to avoid getting stuck.

To conclude, projecting oneself is interesting and also genuinely helps to figure out what we want or think we want. One last thing – when doing any sort of projection, do it by writing with pen and paper. It helps to form your ideas better.

This Week's Suggestions:

🗺️ "how i'm genuinely working out what to do with my life (and how you can too!): practical steps!!" :

Here are a few ideas to work out what to do with life. It's practical stuff to follow along to. I found it helpful, maybe you will too! This also includes a more precise description of the Odyssey plan.

💡 "How to Achieve More in 1 Week than Most People Do in 12 months":

Very clickbaity title, but some good points are brought up. The video stays away from giving productivity tips to be more efficient. Instead, it calls us out to wake up, not sleepwalk.

🎶 "I Guess We're Not the Same" by Sammy Virji:

This song is part of my summer playlist I started curating recently. Having a dedicated summer playlist is a fun tradition of mine.

That is all for today!