Thinking about the prospect of future career can be intimidating and confusing especially, when we must choose one out of equally interesting options. I think these emotions are quite reasonable because we realize that this important choice would lead us into completely different path in life, and sometimes this path might be irreversible. As a civil engineering student, I realized that soon or later I need to decide whether I want to concentrate in structural, transportation, environmental or geotechnical engineering. It will be an awful decision to be made because these fields are arguably important for the development of a new country like Timor-Leste.
This semester, I attended a leadership program conducted at my university, The Way to Success program organized by CEO Global USA, that geared toward entrepreneurship. I extremely enjoyed it since not only they shared general leadership skills but also countless eye-opening experiences on how to be a good leader in corporation settings. As a matter of fact, it made me feel worse because I realized that I really enjoy entrepreneurship, and I started to think if I had made wrong decision to choose civil engineering instead of business major. Nevertheless, the words from one of the speakers, Mr. Rick, hit me right into my heart, and I subsequently realized my true passion, and I knew that I want to do with my life. He asked, “have any of you found your true passion, something that you want to do willingly even for free?”.
This simple question literally brought me back to the memory when I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that help building affordable houses for member of communities that really need them. Under the supervision of the project manager I and other student volunteers learnt to use various construction tools to help with the construction of the house. On the site, I assisted with painting, heavy lifting, and carpentry (most residential houses in my state are built by woods). There is something miraculous about working on construction site. You can closely observe the progress of the construction, starting from when the house was just covered in frames until the completion of the house. Although I did not get payed, I remembered how energized and motivated I were while working on the site 6 hours for 3 consecutive days until the completion of the house.
This sudden flashback reminded me how I am truly passionate in building construction and it reminded me why I went to pursue a civil engineering degree at the first place. Although other civil engineering subfields are interesting, but I am fully confidence that I want to do my concentration in structural engineering which will enable me to pursue a career in what I really love to do, which is residential building construction. In addition to that, instead of thinking to change my major I want to integrate my passion in entrepreneurship that I accumulated from businesses book and The way to Success program to my passion I construction that I acquired from engineering school and volunteering work with Habitat. Not only that I will live with my true passions in live, this will enable me to gradually learn to create my own small construction business in my home country Timor-Leste.