John Lennon once mentioned that at 5 years old, his mother told him that happiness was the key to life. In school, he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he answered with "happy". People said he didn't understand the assignment, and he told them that they didn't understand life.
My mother is the same. Ever since I was a child, she never forced me to attend extra classes such as ballet or art classes. Instead, she allowed me to choose what I wanted to do, and I chose something that I've been doing all the way until here I am at 18 years old.
As I grew, I had countless jobs that I aimed for such as a veterinarian, and optometrist and many other things. Eventually in secondary school, I got very confused when I had to apply to a polytechnic via the direct polytechnic admission exercise, and I had to discuss my choices with my mother.
When I asked her what choices I should take, she answered me with, "any job that you love."
Now, let's not forget that at that time, I was still very confused with my choices, so I applied for veterinarian course in 2 different institutions and optometry at one of the top polytechnics. Eventually I got rejected because my reasons for wanting to enter the course were weak.
I was given a second chance to choose at the joint admissions exercise (JAE) and joint poly special admissions exercise (JPSAE), where I applied for veterinarian once again, and got rejected because I was apparently too soft-hearted to accept lab testing on animals.
I was very thankful that I got rejected twice, because it gave me plenty of time to think and allowed me to get enrolled into a diploma that I found a passion for.
Months ago, a friend of mine questioned, "why didn't you apply for business? It would give you a higher paying salary than engineering."
There is no doubt that a career in the business world would fetch you a fairly high paying salary. However, there are a few considerations:
1) I hate business. The thought of business makes me bored
2) It is not easy to get into a university given the number of people applying for business school. But then again, there are universities all across the world, and it would be easy to get into a couple of them as long as I had the ability to pay for the tuition fees.
My mother told me to study what I truly love, because that would make studying so much better. What is the point of studying something you hate, and finding a job you absolutely hate, just for that high paying salary? Why spend the rest of your life being so unhappy, when you can actually be happy everyday and not dread turning up for work? The first reason was enough to push me away from any business choices.
I know you're probably going "just because you find a job you like doesn't mean you won't dread going to work". I agree, but doing something you like would still be a hundred times better than you hating the entire career.
Spend your life being happy, so that you will have lesser regrets.
