When you can't figure out what to do with your life at 30

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

There are people who, from a very young age, already know what they want in life. Remember your friends in high school, college, or even elementary who your teacher asked what they want to be when they grow up and actually turned out to have the career they always wanted?

There are also those who, while most of their friends are busy partying and #YOLOing, are busy climbing the corporate ladder or starting their own businesses. These are the people who have thriving careers or businesses and are managing teams at the young age of 25 or 27. These people are amazing! They have their life all figured out while everyone else is stuck with this thing called quarter life crisis.

I'm obviously not one of them. I always wished I had my life figured out earlier. At times, I wish I hadn't had kids at such a young age and in a not-so-ideal circumstance. Maybe, just maybe, if I made the right decisions in the past, I wouldn’t have to go through so many hardships in life and would already be very successful by now.

I dropped out of school and got pregnant at 17. I jumped from one job to another in a span of 12 years—9 call centers, 2 office jobs, 2 restaurant jobs, countless freelancing gigs. My average tenure is 6 months and my shortest stay is 1 month. Any job recruiter would look at my resume and throw it in the bin because I am not exactly someone you'd call an "ideal candidate". My ex bosses and supervisors would probably tell you I am not a very good employee. I don't blame them. Even I would fire myself if I had to be my own employee. Does that make sense? Lol

I tried to do and be a few things here and there— Be an OFW, a waitress in a bar, a sandwich maker in a fast food chain, a watercolorist, a graphic designer, a writer, a call center agent… I even tried to be a professional gambler. (Something my mom hated with conviction. Lol

I tried school more than a few times—culinary, advertising and design, recently baking and pastry, and at the moment ETEEAP. I also tried to start micro businesses in multiple occasions selling all sorts of stuff—fresh produce, crocheted items, hand-made greeting cards, and even salted eggs. Through all of my (mis)adventures, I never really knew what I wanted to do in life. No sense of purpose, no sense of direction, and no career goal to speak of. I just existed and worked a job.

Now, you must be wondering why I'm telling you a 400-word story of how I failed in life. My dear friends, thank you for reading this far but all I really want to say is this—if you don’t know what you're doing with your life at 30 or 35 or 40 or 45, it's ok. You are not alone in this. You will eventually figure it out. Know that you are great at something, you just don’t know it yet.

Fast forward to now, at 31, I am happy to say that I have a thriving business and am on my way to earning my degree. It is by no means a tremendous success (not yet anyway) but to the people who aren’t very close to me and only see the person behind Molinos and its seeming success, it would appear that I have my shit figured out. I DON'T.

With this blog, I hope to share with you my journey as a rookie founder and entrepreneur. I would like to share a tip or two on how to build your business or yourself, or at the very least entertain you with my story. Hopefully though, I get to inspire you to find and explore your own greatness. To step out of your comfort zone and dazzle the world with your own brand of awesome. #empireonashoestring