“

When I told my mother that I was going from Psych and Pre-med
Into Psychology and Poetry,
She began to worry, (as every mother does)
Wondering “how could my son throw away his future for writing down words?”
And the first question my father asked was
“How would you plan to make a living after that?”
Some of my friends laughed,
Some of my teachers shook their heads
Muttering their eulogies before I was even dead.

But why should it matter what kind of money this brings?
If money had no value, how rich would you be?
We get 75 years or 80 to be rough
With my estimation,
And my declaration is that I don’t want to be 45
Beginning to regret my whole life.

What are your passions?
What do you love?
If money had no value?
What would be your job?
Are you on that path now? If no,

Why not?

Raised in a culture where everyone feels
Pressured to become engineers or doctors,
I am trying to proctor a future where I don’t feel stuck.
If I am not happy with what I do then
What’s the point of all this school? These years I’ve given up?

And what about you? What’s holding you back
From finding the freedom you’ve been lacking?
Is it your father or your mother?
Is it your ‘friends’ or your teachers?

Or is it a step further?
Is it society? 
Are you doing it to yourself?
Are you manufacturing your own future hell?

Do not sell yourself short on your dreams and your hopes.
I want to spend my life with the stacks of paper that I create,
Not green bills that I make.
So if money had no value,
What would you chase?

”