Sophilicity

For part one of this chapter, I have decided to primarily focus on the stereotypes which occurred at home. I understand that circumstances differentiate between people, but I will be focusing on my personal experience. You may find that there will be overlaps with part two, where I will be focusing on stereotypes at school.

Living in an Asian household, it's quite expected that your parents have certain expectations of you when it comes to education and how you live your life. I think personally I was really fortunate, my parents were very supportive of me and my life choices even though they didn't go by the stereotypical Asian standard. 

I previously mentioned that I decided to opt on a path which people would deem rather "non-Asian". I guess you could say that it couldn't be helped when I chose that I wanted to go into media as a career path. This began when I first went to secondary school. I found that I was particularly interested in the journalism aspect when I participated in the BBC School Report, as well as the Young Reporters scheme with The Guardian.  

However, when I talked about my interests in media at home, I can't say I got the best responses from all of my family. My parents obviously took the chance to see if I would attempt to go down the path of finance, accounting, science or even law, but personally, it wasn't for me. But I was thankful that my parents agreed with my decision. They stated that as long as I worked hard and tried my best, they wouldn't mind whatever I decided to do. Rather than deciding on a subject which would bore me, they'd rather I do something I was passionate about. On the other hand, my relatives were very split. 

One problem I found specifically was the fact that due to nobody having done media in the past, no one really knew too much about it. Trying to describe what media was difficult. The media industry is so wide, and the fact my Vietnamese isn't fluent makes it quite difficult to try to explain. To vaguely put it, they best knew of media when referring to the news, or photography and film. Thus, this led to the whole argument of it being very difficult to find jobs or there being no guarantee for success compared to if I chose a more "Asian" subject such as maths or science. Once I brought up my interest in journalism, my relatives would mention it was a dangerous job as they would refer to the on-site journalism in war zones, with the risk of my life. Trying to convince them that there was so much more to journalism than what we see on the news was hard. 

So many questions have arisen regarding my career choice from my family. Whether it be questions such as "why don't you major in business?" or "do you have a plan b if your career fails?". It's rather daunting to think that they don't believe that I can be successful. At the same time, I guess that's another reason why I am so determined to fight for my life choices. On my Chinese side of the family, I was actually the first who went to university, which caused a lot of pressure on doing well. Despite taking a gap year before going to university, I was still determined to prove that I could do well, whether it meant taking a gap year or doing a non-stereotypical Asian subject.

This led to my motivation to jump at as many opportunities as I could in the media industry. Whether it was paid experience or unpaid, I was determined to gather a wide range of experience of the industry to fill up my CV. I think the first step when it wanting to aim for a practical career, is building up the experience. The media industry is very competitive but if you can showcase your skills and experience to fit the role, then, of course, you're likely to be a worthy candidate for a job.

Furthermore, I found that deciding to choose to take a gap year was a risky decision in an Asian household. It's the question as to "why can't you go to university now?" or "what do you plan to do for this entire year?". The fear that my parents and relatives had for me was that if I took a gap year, that I might end up deciding that university was completely off limits. And in turn, I would resort to working full-time instead of getting a university degree. But I guess that's their own personal outlook of things. Taking a gap year when you're not extremely well-off can I say... means that you need to take account of a lot of things. From council tax, to rent as well as general expenditure because you're no longer a full-time student. I realised I suffered a lot of consequences for my actions as I jumped between jobs trying to accumulate enough money to pay for expenses of travel, food and more. My parents helped support me, but at the same time, I didn't want to constantly rely on them because it was my decision to take a gap year.

Some of you may be wondering why I decided to take a gap year in the first place. I had the thought of university in mind and actually applied for university to enter in September 2016. However, as I got through my A-Levels/BTEC, I became unsure as to whether university was for me. The uncertainty left me to think that the best decision was to take a break, and have some time out to fully consider whether I wanted to go to university or not. I didn't want to go to university to then drop out because I didn't think it was right (especially with all the debt I would be accumulating). I was extremely tired from being constantly in the education system without a proper break, so I guess this gap year would relieve me somewhat of constant studying. The problem I find with the system is that once you get to college/sixth form, you're required to decide on what you want to do in the future. Some people even after completing university are still unsure about what to do, so it's quite difficult trying to make a decision without much assistance. 

This is why I also considered applying for a digital media apprenticeship, which was what I had hoped to do in place of university. Thus, I decided to defer my choices for the upcoming year. Fortunately, I got into my firm choice for university which I was grateful for, and the university also allowed me to defer my entrance for the following year. After receiving my results they made my offer an unconditional one for 2017. Unfortunately, my plans for the apprenticeship fell through due to the oversubscription of applicants for the apprenticeship. In turn, I ended up working a number of jobs in my gap year and did a bit of travelling too with the money I managed to save from my job. It was a long and hard battle, but overall it was a worthy experience. I learnt a lot of life lessons whilst working which helped me with university when I moved far away from home. 

Once again, I'm really appreciative that my parents were able to support me when others couldn't. My parents aren't exactly the stereotypical type, fortunately, but they do have some standards which I have to abide by. I wasn't the stereotypical Asian who was forced to learn to play an instrument, and my parents weren't extremely concerned about my grades when I got a B (okay.. maybe that's a lie, I'm sure my mum once went up to me and asked why I didn't get an A aha). However, because my parents were so understanding, and motivated me to work hard, I was determined to strive to be the best. And I guess that is why I have gathered so much media experience, and have worked for a number of media-related jobs to this day. 

So, to everyone who supported me and my decisions to go into media, I thank you. I actually also have to thank my cousin. She motivated me to strive for these opportunities and would oppose my relatives with logical arguments as to why my decision was right for me. She assisted me in getting these opportunities over her own and was also there to comfort me whenever I hit a low point in my life, particularly due to the comments I received opposing my decision. Thank you.