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Growing up....

So when is it that you decide what you want to be when you grow up? I remember that when I was a kid, I used to say "I want to own dad's company!". It was a pretty good dream as a start. I liked going around in the offices, talking to (or bugging) people, driving the machines around, picking up the phone in my super important voice…
Sitting here at Harvard, amidst the rush of the cover letter deadline to send to the companies that I have not decided about yet, I wonder where all that went. Some say I grew up to be an over-achiever. Some say I was always on my way to come here. The truth may be found somewhere in between. So ok, I made it here. And so what? I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
Or maybe I know some days, and I am just wondering what that means. If you are wondering what the only Industry Week that I attended was, it was Social Enterprise. For those of you that are not sure of what that is (as I was not as well), it includes non-profit organizations, government and foundations, corporate social responsibility departments in large organizations and the more modern for-profit social enterprises. The latter look like an appealing concept to me as they still involve the corporate or financial world that no doubt attract me but, at the same time, they have something else, a bit more salt I would say.
But exactly what you can do in this world is extremely vague. At least in my mind… Maybe I do not know enough about it still. Maybe I still have a lot to research about. In a way, I think that it may be my last chance to go local, before I stabilize, have a family, settle in one place, those kinds of things. So I want to go local, supporting local entrepreneurs, whatever it is. Something that brings me the thrill of seeing the action happening. But at the same time, I tend to think long term. In the end, I am always thinking ahead, and this time I do not see why it should be different. Well, thinking ahead means I should think more of what I want to do in 2 years time, rather than just the fun and excitement of next summer. It means I may actually have to find a job that will get me somewhere. So I feel like I am stuck in between, the deadline for the cover letter is not extended and the summer does not look any further away despite the fact that the snow has just started here. Where do you draw the line of when you still want to be a kid, just one more time, and when you have to grow up?
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