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Love What You Do and Do What You Love…

“Love what you do and do what you love. Don’t listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love.” Author and poet Ray Bradbury said it best.

Every career path has challenges. You may go down the wrong path on more than one occasion. The path may be rougher, less traveled than you originally thought. Or, maybe it’s not a path at all. Maybe it’s a buzzing highway. Maybe it’s LA traffic, where you’re competing with countless, faceless others to get where you want to go. No matter the road ahead or the path you’re on, your desire, passion and even hobbies will fuel you to do what you love.

When I was younger, my dad and I used to have entire conversations in puns.

“Oh, GOUDA! Aren’t these cheeses GRATE?”

“BRIE-whiz, Dad! That’s NACHO cheese, it’s my cheese.”

“Well, now I’m BLEU.”

“Sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to STRING you along. Have some provolone.”

We’d spend mealtimes laughing, changing topics and going on and on. I lived for it. I would stay up late at night thinking of new puns or funny phrasings to make my family laugh as my dad and I played this game. Little did he know, or maybe he did, my dad was priming me for my future career in marketing.

Playing with words and writing stories, I eventually majored in communication in college. Looking back, it may sound mapped out, planned, strategic, but it was far from it. I originally wanted to major in exercise science and sports medicine. I was an athlete and enjoyed playing sports. Plus, I like the thought of being a doctor — the title more than the occupation — but I ended up bored and uninspired in every class. I learned from that experience: the difference between following what you think you are supposed to do versus what you love to do.

Wanting to write, entertain, plan events, bring life to clever ideas, and manage social media for clubs and causes, I followed what I loved and I went on to become president of my university’s chapter of the American Marketing Association. I signed up for internships, devouring all the knowledge I could and developing new ways to pursue what I love. Two days after graduating, I landed my first real job, my first step to my career in marketing, and I thrived in that position for a number of years.

I’ve followed different paths since then and I’ll admit I’ve made a wrong turn or two, but each time I ask myself, “Is this what you love?” I’m pulled back. Asking myself this question is actually what brought me to Mustang Marketing. Where creativity meets inspiration and no two days are the same, I’m proud to be in this position, doing what I love and making “punny” jokes with coworkers once again.

Finding what you love and making a career out of it isn’t easy, but you’ll feel it when it happens, because when you’re lucky enough to discover what you want to do the rest of your life, everything else just feels like work.