This is an opinion article. Any views expressed belong solely to the author and are not representative of The Cluster.
From writers and painters to actors and dancers, there is a wide variety of careers on the creative side to choose from. The problem, however, is that they are incredibly slept on.
Recently I’ve found that there are many extremely creative people going into non-creative careers, such as engineering, business and education. They’re creators, making brilliant things like music or poetry, yet they still choose to get involved in careers that are completely unrelated. Why is that?
Personally, I feel as though many families across generations take a wrong view in regard to creative careers. There’s a strong relation between risk-taking and any field that’s not directly “academic” per se.
There is a strong narrative that going into the realm of art as a career will typically end negatively, unless you have everything needed to be as big as moguls in the industry today. However, we must dispel this narrative. It is definitely possible to make it within a creative career. It’s not the simplest task, but never doubt yourself on what’s possible.
Initially, I thought I’d have a career in the Engineering field, but I also had a very strong interest and soon to be passion for writing and photography. Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed engineering. I never strayed away from it, but I also made sure that I put time into my other interests as well. My passion for writing and photography began to develop, and I changed my course of action to adhere to what made me truly happy, versus what made outsiders happy.
We all should do what we think brings us joy. If your creative side is shining brighter than everything else, listen to it.
In all, if you write, write. If you dance, dance. Make your true passion your first priority. Never fall for the traps that may be placed in your mind by anyone else about a choice that’s ultimately yours. If you have intent and put the effort into it, you’re bound to be successful regardless.
Chance Allen ‘22 is a journalism student at Mercer who has been working for The Cluster under various roles for the past three years. Allen is a multi-hyphenate but works primarily with photo and writing. He has been working with NBC Entertainment for the entirety of this year and since becoming a journalism student he has received multiple honors and awards from the Georgia Collegiate Press Association as well as DASHBOARD. Allen spends his free time writing, creating, and being.
