Academia: The Road Less Traveled

When you want to ‘make the world a better place’, there are many paths you can take. This is the first and most important takeaway here – other truths will follow. And depending on what you know about yourself and what you’re drawn to, you’ll finish reading this with a better idea of which path you should take.

Because we do need to make the world a better place! There are lots of things that are wrong  and right now there’s probably a specific issue that’s popped up in your head – and that’s what makes us human: to want to make things right. When we understand that, we can start asking the questions that are central to our own story: What do I want to make better? How do I do it?

And you can only ever answer those questions yourself. They may be the most significant questions you ever ask yourself, because the answers will put you on a path that will define your life.

As young people with a passion for justice and empowerment, when we want to answer those significant questions, we often those answers lie in ‘social entrepreneurship’ or something similar. But for me, I honestly don’t know what that is. I’m not sure I have the business skills, I can’t really code and I’m not sure I would have any amazing business ideas anyway. But I’m okay with that – because I know what I can do.

I know how to write well. I know how to structure a well-researched argument. I know myself. My name is Cris, I’m from South Africa, and I got a scholarship to do a Master’s in International Public Policy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Canada. This is the path I’m on. I haven’t always been in academia. I’ve been around the block, so to speak – like the job market’s village bicycle. But it’s been necessary for me to explore the many opportunities that I’ve been fortunate enough to stumble across in both the public and private sector. However, right now, taking the academic route is what’s best for me.

Pursuing this master’s degree will allow me to affect change in a space that is just as influential as the business world: the political world. And it’ll give me the expertise in a field that is just as influential as social innovation: public policy. At the end of this academic year, I will get the opportunity to present a policy brief to Global Affairs Canada on how they should integrate the challenge of climate change into their foreign policy. The responsibility is massive, and I love it. And this is how you’ll know when you’re on the right path: when taking it upon yourself to address an issue is as much about passion as it is about capability.

The thing is, I’m still answering those significant questions. The process of answering those questions is just as important as the answers themselves – you want to commit to something that’s the best fit to you.

So, your path might change, and that’s okay – that’s part of your journey, your story. You owe it to yourself to be confident in your contributions. And with each decision, you’ll come closer to understanding more about yourself, what you want to do in this life and how to do it.