Confused about reality?

Post Reply New Topic

Hi. I'm 18 and I have a hard time distinguishing my interests. I watch a lot of medical/crime shows and I often feel obsessive about it and I keep feeling like I want to connect with it. I've always been a mimic with these things. The thing is, I can't figure out which thing I want. I'll give an example. I'm into the CBS show Elementary. When I watch stuff like that, I get fixated and feel like I want something like that as a career. But, I can't figure out if it's the idea of actual police/medical work that I want or the idea of acting (which suits my mimicry) and I often hop around. Some of the things I might think are: I want to be famous, but I think that character's job is cool...but they don't really exist, but the actor exists, but the actor is only pretending... and then I can't figure it out.

Why don't you do some research into the kind of careers protrayed in those shows? That way you can find out if you are interested in the glamour of acting or the actual jobs they do in the show. The jobs themselves may not be as exciting as tv makes out. Look up info on what sort of qualifications are involved and see if that is something that you really do want to study. The more information you have, the easier it will be to make an informed decision.

Contact your local volunteer fire department about becoming an emergency medical technician. It's only about 140-160 hours of training, often free of charge, and would give you a chance to experience the medical field.

You can also contact your local police department about doing a ride along.

I would say the biggest two differences are:

1.) In real police work, you can die.

2.) In real EMS work, the patients do die.

TV pretty much never portrays what the job is really like.

Volunteering/interning is the best way to see it first hand.

It's easy to be obsessed with the idea of doing a job but not really like the actual doing of the job.

This has been my experience, so prior ideas about doing volunteer work or whatever seem good to me.

In college I much enjoyed studying accounting and looked forward to a career in it. I later learned, with some dismay, that what I enjoyed in school was studying accounting, financial, and economic theory; real life practical careers in these areas was much less interesting.

Also in college I became fascinated with financial analysis while taking courses on that subject. I asked a prominent professor about careers in financial analysis, and he said "It's great work - when you can get it." It was a good reality check that he, with his prominence, was cautioning about that job market.

Because I enjoy learning, research, and stuff like that I used to think about an academic faculty career. But after talking with several career college professors and learning about the "politics" involved, I reconsidered.

So I have found that doing some real-world fact finding about careers pays big dividends.

Crime and murder is enjoyable. For a psychopath. Those shows remind me of things that make me feel like I am going to puke. When someone gets hurt really bad, or if I go see a friend in the hospital, I get pure white. Sometimes I faint. Surgery on someone makes me very weak. I feel like they are stealing my chi. I took stitches out of my skull by myself once.That was a ghostly white experience too. You need to experience these things. Hopefully your mind knows these things are not real. It makes things different. If you enjoy acting, I hope you don't mind hanging around a bunch of narcissists with the look at me syndrome going on, and the paparazzi a-holes that exploit you, lie, and take away your privacy for money. Generally actors are very nice. It can be very fun.

Try different things out.
You'll figure out what you like.