5 Things I Love About Career Day

I’m happy to report that I was never called into the principal’s office—until I became an adult, but that’s what happens when you have a bunch of friends who run schools and two who were bold enough to create one from scratch. This time I was invited to be the keynote speaker for Summit Academy Charter School’s sixth annual career day in Red Hook, Brooklyn and since your girl loves to talk and drop a jewel of wisdom or two, I happily accepted.

I’m all about career day and it’s not just because they serve a catered lunch with chicken and rice. That’s just part of it. I love that principals and teachers care enough to expose their students to industry professionals and careers—like a life coach, audio engineer or president of a nonprofit—they had no idea existed, but now they do. Not to be all cheesy, but sometimes you need to see it believe it that it’s possible to walk in that person’s footsteps, you can’t just hear about it from your humanities teacher or read about it in online. Cue everybody’s favorite graduation song: “I Believe I Can Fly.”

Here are 5 things I love about career day, in no particular order:

1. Creating a PowerPoint preso: Let’s just be honest. Let’s just be real. You’ll happily zone out or start eating your hang nail if there isn’t something to look at other than my cute face while I’m up there at the podium. I’m a fan of interesting graphics, celebrity photos (yay for wonderful distractions!), an elementary school throwback of me (see below) just for giggles sake and advice/points to remember. In my mind, if it’s up on the screen, you’ll remember it better. My message for Summit’s scholar was simple: Recognize your gifts and use them, don’t just be a waste of skin, waste them.

 

2. 

   Learning about dope careers and side hustles: For the last five years I’ve covered entertainment, hair and beauty, so rarely do I get to meet a former D1 basketball player turned inventor, a court stenographer who teaches Salsercise (a combo of salsa and aerobics) to senior citizens, or a funk rock singer who speaks Spanish, French and Italian. Summit had the career gumbo going on! These folks were all about choosing their own adventures. People with interesting jobs who can answer the phone in five different languages intrigue me. I chatted with everyone over a plate of delicious chicken and rice.

3. Talking about my double Dutch dreams: When it came down to choosing a career, it was a toss up between winning Olympic gold for team USA as professional double Dutch jumper, or being a writer. Mind you, taking home that kind of medal in this sport wasn’t an option when I was in the fifth grade. Today, double Dutch is part of the Junior Olympics, but I digress. I choose writing because I’m curious and I like to tell stories. Characters have been talking to me since I was about 11-years-old and like Rihanna, I get along with the voices in my head and the monsters under my bed. Oh, and I still love jumping rope too.

 

4. Putting teens on the spot: At the podium there’s a sea of faces staring at me, laughing at my fifth grade photo, falling asleep and trying to text their BF on the low. But once we get into our workshops, it’s a bit harder to use your smartphone when I’mthisclosetoyou. And you think I’m going to do more talking. Uh, nope. I just spent 15-minutes giving you a dope keynote speech and a power point and you want me to talk some more?! Not happening. C’mon, now it’s your turn to impress me with your career goals and I hope you’re ready. Tell me that you want to be a TV correspondent like Terri Seymour on Extra! and I’ll invite you to stand in front of the class and interview another student who’s an aspiring actress. If being on TV is your dream, start working toward it now. To quote the rapper Fabolos: “You gotta stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready.

   

   5. Introducing teens to careers that weren’t on their radar: If I hear I wanna sing like Beyoncé or play basketball like Carmelo, one more time—but you refuse to take voice lessons or don’t want to improve your three-point shot—I’m going to spazz out. Look, Bey and ’Melo make it look easy, but it isn’t. They put in the hours of rehearsal, practice and sacrificed to be at the top of their game—and you barely want to complete those five trigonometry problems that are due tomorrow. Which means you’re not serious about putting in the work, or building a champion work ethic. If you really love music and sports, I encourage you to think about other careers in the industry. The ones that get overlooked because e’erybody wants to be famous. There’s a gang of people responsible for the behind-the-scenes magic that you don’t see onstage or on the court. You have agents, coaches, entertainment lawyers, choreographers, managers, brand specialists, sport agents and more. Want to know something that being a sport agent? I have four words for you: Google is your friend. Translation: Look it up.

 

What do you love about career day?