I want to be a ___. Too old (or established in your career) to fill it in?
Well, children are not and we’re doing the vast majority a disservice by not giving them an idea about what the work entails.
Story: When I was 15, I wanted to be an architect for a bit. My uncle had me shadow his friend to get a taste of the architectural life. It turned me off architecture though, because of the way the universe works, one of my best friends went on to study architecture. But I digress.
I read this piece with a lot of recognition and rebuked by this knowledge: I was able to eliminate architecture because I had the chance to see what it entails. In the same way my brother knows a bit of what some fields demand in ‘the real world’ because he has encountered these professionals in their work settings.
Slate has a podcast called ‘Working’ in which people talk about their jobs. I especially liked this episode because we’re generally not hearing kids looking to go down that path and it’s intriguing how layered the work is.
Do you think this is a possibility in Kenya? It would bypass the hurdle that is privilege. Who knows, some kids may flock to each other’s homes to listen to it like I once listened to Muthoni Bwika’s show with one of my primary school friends.
Coincidental, but true: she now hosts Chanuka Dada on 89.5 Ghetto Radio.
#CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/
Questions, comments, suggestions or career tales? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com
Nyambura Mutanyi 