Being 24 and working multiple jobs

Many people underestimate the position of being a freelancer.

It’s not because I’m too lazy to work in an office job, nor is it because i continuously get rejection letters for the jobs that I do apply for.

Mainly, it’s a way I get to choose the work I want. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done the agency life, the corporate life, hell – I’ve worked retail for a bit back in college. But none of those jobs, as much as I loved being in an agency – gave me a purpose.

Yes, I still take on mundane tasks  to pay the bills with, but that’s a given – not all jobs are for fun.

My assistant lecturing job is by far my favorite, but since it’s only a short semester I have to be ready to let go of my 60+ babies… and even that job has the downside of 10 different WhatsApp groups pinging every day and a constant need of a power outlet to charge.

My project planning job is a passion project – meaning until everything gets running, it doesn’t pay yet. I choose to stay on board because I believe in the project, the purpose of it stays close to my heart. I will post more about this once I get the okay. Promise!

and then there’s my transcribing and translation job…

While I work with a team, this is the job that pays Starbucks addiction and *when I take on a lot* pays for my 26th floor apartment. This is my least favorite but it pays the most when I do take in documents. The funny back story to how I got this job is actually at the last day of my corporate copywriting job… my Tinder contact asked me whether I was free, of course I thought it was so we could meet up for coffee but no, instead he offers me a freelance gig. Close to 8 months and 80 hours of audio files later, I’m the first person they contact.

So I must be good at it, right?

I like to choose jobs that are close to my passion: arts.

I’ve done the personal assistant job before and quit after 2 weeks because I did not see a future in it for me. The jobs that I take involving art all have one thing in common, I get to learn more about the industry.

Before I save enough to go back to school to learn – which I want to do for myself – I vowed that if I was given the choice to hustle my way through connections I make within the industry, I will take it.

Many people I know, my age and even older are sometimes too afraid to jump off the wagon and let themselves be trapped in an average 9-5 job because that’s what they’re comfortable with. I realized when I was in the corporate life that I hated that. I knew with every atom in my being that if I continued then I wouldn’t get to evolve as a person, nor would I get closer to what I wanted to do later in life.

I’m not saying it was easy, it’s still hard to do until today.

Waking up is a hustle, hearing my mother complain and offering me mundane safe jobs, getting compared to my parent’s friend’s children who are earning ten times what I do regularly is tough. But I push through, I’m grateful for the people that offered to mentor me and widen my connections because it is because of them that I am still hustling – and enjoying every bit of it.

Being 24 years old and working multiple jobs is not easy. I wouldn’t suggest it to just anyone, but if you want something the way I want my dream, it’s going to be worth every battle – even the ones with yourself.

X

The Art of Not Knowing Anything

 

Hi, my name is Shenntyara, I’m 24 years old and I have no clue of what to do next or where my life is going – and it’s okay.

As 2016 is coming to an end, I think the biggest revelation that came to mind was the many times I said goodbye.

It was close to 365 days ago as I sat in the room I am in now that I decided to say goodbye to punishing myself for the decisions I’ve made last year; not long after my last kiss to the person I swore I wanted to be with, he left me and I was shattered.

I rung the new year at square one, this year I find myself ironically in the same position. The difference is, I’m taking account for all the small things that matter.

After reevaluating my year as December came, I realize that there were mistakes I’ve remade and moments I missed because I was too focused on making everyone else around me happy. I forgot about myself – something that I’ve recently been reminded was just as important.

The challenges and thoughts I’ve put into my draft folder had overflowed, and nobody I knew can help me unless I wanted to help myself.

A good guy recently pointed to the security guard and asked me “how hard do you think his life is compared to you?” and as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I’ve been complaining too much about the injustice I felt was handed to me in a hand of bad cards; I feel ashamed and angry at myself more than I was upset at him for pointing that there was a bigger picture in mind.

I guess I’m just procrastinating the inevitable next steps I have to take, and it scares me.