Passion Chasing After 30

Who would've known that in 2007, you could potentially launch a career just by recording videos and posting them on YouTube. No matter your niche, you could gain followers, the term, influencer, would be used to explain your job title, and people that have never met you would trust what comes out of your mouth. To whom much is give, much is required! Fast forward 13 years later and it's one of the fast growing career fields on the market. Everyone wants to be a breakout, viral video star. It only takes one for you to gain thousands of followers per day and isn't getting that little blue check next to your handle kind of "the dream?"

In 2020, more than 1.1M people are employed as influencers and have multiple brand deals from companies big and small, according to an article on quora.com. That's not really a lot of people when you think of all of the other careers we (as in millennials) were told he HAD to pursue, due to our parents paying for our education. I have countless classmates from high school on up that have gone into the medical field, oil and gas, military, and the justice system, and though I'm sure they enjoy those salaries, most of them are there strictly because it was there parent's dream for them to become (fill in the blank career).

Growing up, I had no choice but to finish high school (I was going to do that anyways) and go to college. I did the college thing, but I quickly found out it was not for me. Mainly because I got pregnant and didn't want to go back, but that's not what we're talking about. (Don't judge me.) I never knew what I truly wanted to do because all of the things I thought I wanted was what my parents wanted for my life. I struggled in college because of that reason. I was uninterested in the classes, therefore, I put forth no effort. I mean, I had a decent GPA but it wasn't what I wanted to do. It's taken ALL of my adult life to figure out that beauty and blogging was a deep passion of mine. I mean, why not share my knowledge of all things beauty with the world, right?

Being a millennial in today's world, means being misunderstood. We are called crazy, lazy and stubborn for following our true passions. We are not supported enough by older generations. I grew up with two older sisters. They were 10 and 12 years older than me. They both followed the traditional path: Graduate, college/military, work force. My younger brother and I, though we were raised the same, still followed our true passions. I mean, we both went to college because it's what was expected of us, but he eventually went into the military and I went to cosmetology school. Failing, with our parents, was not an option.

I'm sure I'm not the only one out here. My best friend has two degrees and has a cosmetic business, which doesn't fall under either of her degrees. My brother is a video game influencer on Twitch. So many different avenues to take in the world and we followed what we were told because our momma didn't play that. Now here we are, on the other side of 30 (I'm actually 32) and we all have basically started over because for the longest time, we have not been happy in what we were told we were SUPPOSE to succeed in.

Generation Z or Gen Z doesn't have to worry about what we had to go through. They are supported because they are young and have their whole lives ahead of them, while the elder millennials are looked at as crazy because we've lived a good bit of our lives. "Don't you think starting over would hurt you more than it will help?" I'm here to encourage you, no matter your age, to say "SCREW YOU SOCIETY!" What ever your passion, DO ITI!!! If you really love what you do, you will succeed. Try every version of Plan A and then try Plan B. Never let anyone tell you your dreams and passions are dumb and that it won't work. Once you start to believe them, that's when it becomes true.

Passion chasing can be one of your greatest decisions if you take it seriously enough. You have to truly throw your all into it, or just keep the effort. That means promoting the hell out of your brand, understanding that you are your ENTIRE PR team, and keeping that SAME energy even when no one is supporting you. I admire my bestfriend so much because she literally built her business up from the ground. I want to support you in the same way. Melissa Butler of The Lip Bar was rejected from 'Shark Tank,' and now her brand is being sold in Target across the country. FOLLOW! YOUR! DREAMS! I hope that I can be a flame for others as some have been for me. What are your passions? Did you go the traditional route or the road less traveled? Let me know below and as always, thank you for your constant support. I've been MIA a bit since I started school. I'm not going anywhere. Until next time...