I Know My DNA, Do You?

It took me a while to realize what I wanted to do with my life. To be honest, I thought I was meant to be an oncologist because of my experience with cancer. People who meant the world to me suffered from cancer; my mom had uterine cancer and my mentor died because of a tumor. These events motivated me to pursue a Pre-Med track in my freshman year; however, I failed my chemistry 1 course which derailed me from my dream. Hitting such a brick wall in my first semester cost me my GPA, but it helped me accept who I was supposed to be. Being at limbo for some time made me reflect on who I am and what I am truly good at. My DNA has always been hustling, solving problems, loving nature, and preserving for the future. My parents are entrepreneurs. They hustled in the Philippines selling perfume on the side of the road when they were refugees there. They were only teenagers who would've died to be in the U.S. All sacrifices were made to just be here.

Understanding who my parents were was another factor in determining my DNA. My parents never had any higher level of education. In fact, they never graduated high school, yet they made it to the U.S and bought their first house in the span of 3 years of having it. This was rare especially after the economy collapsed due in 2008. Being able to officially have our own house, made me so proud of my parents. The amount of respect for their sacrifices and hustle is indescribable. Although my parents and I do not get along in the aspect of career goals, I still love them and respect them.

I finally accepted my destiny when I reflected on my background. I am an entrepreneur. I solve problems. I love networking and making a concept be a reality,. No matter how hard I have to fake it to make it, I will never fake it enough to be a doctor. I just didn't have that much passion. Sure I wanted the world to be cancer free, but I just didn't have the curiosity or drive to push me through undergrad or med school. So one day, I just started to write down questions in my journal about what were three things I would want to fix today, The list: overfishing is not sustainable, people with disability are unemployed, higher education is too expensive. Once I had these three problems written down, I would stare at it for days... I didn't know how to tackle it. Then it hit me, creating a sustainable fish farm would solve the firs two problems. The third would be solve later on when I have more asset under my name to make an influence. In all honesty, I hope this blog post gives you more direction in life if you were lost like me. Don't do anything you could not see yourself doing in the long run. Be you and know your DNA. Family and friends could say all they want but you only have you to care for! Do some soul searching!