You can be a Doctor, a Lawyer, an Engineer, a Disgrace, ….or anything else you want to be!
By: Kingsley Chukwuma Dibie
Tags: African Culture, Career Advice, Failure Stories, Career Development, Career Paths

Photo Credit: Author

It is the end of the year, and I am again reflecting some more on my life journey. Like for most people, 2020 was a really challenging year — coping with the COVID-19 outbreak amidst job uncertainties and adapting to new ways of working. At some point, I really began to question some of my career choices, and was asking myself;

How did you end up in the communications field in the first place? Wouldnt it have been safer if you had studied to become a Doctor, a Lawyer, or an Engineer?

As I pondered on these thoughts, I recognised that I did not just get into Communications through my first professional role. The journey for me had started long before I knew or understood what anyone who studied any subject related to Communication Management did. In restrospect, my career path had been defined at a point in time where — by the popular expectation, I either had to become a Doctor, a Lawyer, an Engineer or a Disgrace. I (fortunately) became none. And this is my story….

1. Always follow your dreams.. Unless you are African, then you follow the dreams of your parents

“You can either become a Doctor, a Lawyer, an Engineer or a Disgrace.” — African Parents

At a young age, I had developed a passion for reading newspapers. I still remember the days when my father returned home from work with his daily newspapers, and I would collect them to read through the newspaper stories and articles. In high school, I became even more fascinated with the arts and had fallen in love with writing poetry and enjoying the journalistic work of several newspaper column editors.

But growing up under the typical African home in that era, it wasn’t really a dream “career goal” to end up being a writer or consider studying anything related to Communications. Even before most of us were born, there seem to have been an “unwritten understanding” among many of our parents about what we could all become.

When my mom was pregnant with me, someone went up to her and said, ‘What are you having?’ She was like, ‘I’m having a doctor.´ — Comedian, Gina Yashere

In my situation, I couldn’t become a Doctor or an Engineer as I had opted early for the Arts in high school. So among the recognised options available to me, I either had the choice of becoming a Lawyer or a Disgrace. Luckily, I was a little ambitious, so ending up a Disgrace was not something I wanted for myself.

2. Always follow your parent´s dream… Until you open your University Admission Letter

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” — Jimmy Dean

I still remember the day I received my undergraduate University Admission Letter. I was admitted into Delta State University, Abraka. This was supposed to be “great news”, but I recall that for a couple of reasons, it was not very exciting to me. For one, I had lost my father a couple of months earlier, and was now being notified that I had been offered admission to study Mass Communications! Mass Communications? This was not my preferred course of study! How was I to end up becoming a Lawyer by studying Mass Communications?

Within the last decades, the university admission system in Nigeria became highly competititive. Till date, most university applicants cannot get the chance to study the preferred courses of study that they apply for. According to the Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), between 2010 and 2015, out of the 10 million applicants that sought entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions, less than 30% gained admission.

Photo Credit: Sarah Hashish

Like most of the successfully admitted applicants, I decided I was going to “temporarily” accept my fate. I was going to accept the admission I received to study Mass Communications, but would only study for a year and re-apply to study Law in the next admission round. Well, if you take a second look at my profile, you will quickly realize that the Law study dream never materialized.

Now with a couple of degrees in Communications, and the chance to develop a career that spans across several countries, I wonder if I would have had the same opportunities as a Lawyer in Nigeria?

The end of my African story

“Follow your own passion — not your parents’, not your teachers’ — yours.” — Robert Ballard

Photo Credit: August-De-Richelieu from Pexels

As I share from my story today, I also realize that there are many others under the same kind of pressure I had fallen under several years ago. For some, they are constantly reminded of how much their parents or guardians have sacrificed to provide a better life and educational opportunities for them, so they feel duty bound to settle for professions or careers that are assumed to be the most economically rewarding.

Can you really be a writer or fine artist and earn a living?

To the best of my knowledge, there are thousands of writers and fine artists who have rewarding careers. And I know several individuals who have pursued their passion in so called “unconventional professions” and found success and fulfilment in doing so.

Although I sometimes still wonder what kind of a Lawyer I would have become if I had been admitted to study Law, I can on good authority tell you today;