The Back up Plan????

So this morning, as I rolled out of bed and my hip connected with the wood floors- an enacted form of shock therapy highly recommended for use in one's waking up process- I started to wonder why me, a self proclaimed right brainer, had a life that channeled Dolly Parton's 9-5 instead of Springsteen's Glory Days?  My profession, a Corporate Accountant, is a testament that God indeed has a sense of humor.  I am blessed or cursed with an innate inability to add without the help of a machine and possess a serious case of unrequited love for all of life's  frivolities.  So with me constantly fighting allergic reactions due to fluorescent light, stark carpets, and unnecessary smiles before sun down; I just had to wonder why my fall back plan is now my life. 

As an African child, an education that leads one to become a  Doctor, Nurse, PHD carrying Professor (the title Doctor is mandatory if this route is chosen ) , Engineer, and just recently added to the list a Corporate Lawyer or Accountant, is the only accepted choice for one's future.  An African's notion of education must not be confused with that of North America or Europe's.  The Arts is not considered a viable educational choice and therefore a career in this field is highly discouraged; there will be no "Save the Music" campaign going on in Africa anytime soon and aspirations to be a writer, movie star, model, athlete, or a fashion designer are equivalent to a child signing their parent's death certificate.

I am not exactly sure why most African parents feel this way, but I came up with one plausible answer.  While American parents on the same caliber as African parents are pushing their kids to be that "one in a million", our parents are pushing us toward the fool proof choices in life.  This of course is highly commendable if one is to take it at face value.   However, I sometimes feel that our parents are choosing this form of parenting because they are fresh of the heels of scraping  knees and elbows just to get the bare minimum offered.  This form of black tax that our parents and most of us are still encountering has resulted in parents curtailing any delusions of grandeur a child might have thereby limiting how high one can fly.  With this type of upbringing, most of us start on a fall back career in hopes of multi tasking our way to our dream career.    

Unfortunately, we are only allotted one life in this journey. So, while I have been busy working on a fall back career, a chance of me possibly finding a job that agrees with my personality is slowly disappearing.  Forget what everyone keeps telling you; spunkiness, a direct product of innocence, does not last.  I am starting to believe that back up plans, like the back up guy prominent in most of my failed relationships is the unsung smoking mirror of my adult life.   

Since multi-tasking life as a whole is not a gift most of us have been granted,  I now wonder if I should engage in extreme shock therapy and give up my back up plan.  Just like my enacted hip bone to wood floor shock therapy, would life be a lot clearer if I lived it for only the things I know I want?  No back up plans, just the plan? Would I have skipped my quarter life crises? Could I be happy living on Art and Fashion alone? Of course skipping the back up plan will make affording this seasons Burberry python thigh-high boots impossible.

I must state the fear all unsatisfied young professionals know but choose to ignore, I am not entirely sure we truly can have it all. So, what gives?