When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother ‘What will I be?’
Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here’s what she said to me:
Que sera sera. Whatever will be, will be.
The future is not ours to see.
What will be, will be.
My mom would sing this song to me as a lullaby whenever I had a difficult time falling asleep. I would drift off to sleep while fantasizing about my future. Oh, imagine the possibilities! Like Jennifer Garner on 13 Going on 30, I couldn’t wait for the day when I would finally become “thirty and flirty and thriving.”
Fast forward to college where all my hopes and dreams were crushed by reality. Just kidding. It wasn’t that dramatic. What happened was as I got to know myself more, I eventually realized that my motivations, values, and interests didn’t align with the career paths I was pursuing. Before I took the time to reflect on what matters to me and why, I was just a little sheep following the herd. Law school, foreign service, NGO advocacy, research, consulting, human resource management – I dabbled into all of them. By the end of my sophomore year, I had all these experiences without a direction. I had no idea what I wanted to do.
Four Eleven and a Half 