Allow yourself to dream and set goals, but also don’t forget to have a time to relax and take your time off.
A conversation about goals and dreams with Tamikka Reid
International Women’s Day is an empowering and important date for women all around the world. Tamikka and I were lucky to be given a topic about goals and dreams that we are both achieving and about to accomplish. One of the most important things that I have taken from our conversation is that you do not necessarily have to set big goals and plan them in advance. Because some things don’t always work out as you want, you should not build your life around your goals. It’s ok to change your mind and try something new.
It was nice to talk to Tamikka, though via Zoom due to current COVID-19 restrictions, but this sets another goal for me: to be able to finally meet all the girls who contribute to Her Campus in person. As we are all locked in our rooms at the moment, talking to a new person was exciting, especially when I could share my own goals and hear about someone else’s opinion about setting goals too.
Tamikka is a second-year journalism student from Sheffield, who is very passionate about writing as we can see it from her articles on Her Campus and her film and tv show review blog All About That Feature. Well, she really loves films; as Tamikka admits she can watch them all day. She likes dancing, karaoke, musicals, concerts, festivals, exploring cultures and baking. In fact, because of lockdown she became a quite confident baker. Lockdown unlocked some great skills for bored students.
One thing that concerned me is when Tamikka told me a reason she didn’t continue attending dance society classes. She didn’t want to walk alone in the dark afterwards. It’s quite sad that women sometimes have to choose between their safety and interests. I wish we could progress to be decent human beings so everyone can feel safe about their lives.
Before asking Tamikka about her goals, I wanted to know who inspires her to be who she is and to do what she is doing.
For Tamikka, it’s her sister, who is a first-generation university student. She motivates her to work hard and achieve whatever she wants to achieve: “If she can do it, then I can do it as well”. We need a person we look up to and it’s even better when your inspiration is a person you love and trust the most – your sibling. Family relationships are different and complicated for everyone, so it’s nice to have the person that motivates you a part of your family, even though this isn’t always the case.
We then moved to a topic about life and career goals.
Tamikka wants to be a journalist who works in the arts and culture sector; to be precise, she wants to be a film critic. She also wants to write a fictional book, because she loves escapism and complex characters. I already want to read it on my Kindle.
One of her life goals is to travel around Europe. While we were talking about different cultures and places Tamikka then said: “No, basically I want to travel everywhere”. Same, girl. I think we are all craving something new. New places, new people and new experiences, after being locked down for a year. We want to be everywhere and do everything that we couldn’t do because of Miss Rona.
I thought it was interesting to ask about the important things in Tamikka’s life.
Tamikka gave me the most amazing answer that we should all remember and say to ourselves sometimes: “Bro, I am 19! I don’t think about important stuff. But my family and friends maybe”. You should give yourself time to be just a teenager, just a uni student, just a person without thinking deep thoughts.
I then asked Tamikka what she is doing to achieve her career and life goals.
“At the moment just joining societies. Because you can express yourself as much as you want, you have freedom to do something you love surrounded with people who love it as well”.
Deeper questions… the obstacles.
“I think I am the main obstacle in my life. Sometimes, also because of COVID-19, I just don’t want to anything. But sometimes it is important to relax and give yourself time off. And then you can start again or continue doing something you want to do”. Sometimes we feel like we will achieve nothing, and everything is miserable. Tamikka understands it, since she is a second-year student, who is, as many other students, trying to find something for a placement year. It’s a difficult time, but she says it’s important just to relax and remember that you are not alone. Everyone is scared about their future and not being able to acheive their goals. Tamikka says “It’s perfectly normal to not be sure, no one has life figured out. Don’t worry about the future, nobody knows what is going to happen. If you need an advice, talk to people, like parents, friends, teachers”.
The last question I had for Tamikka was about her childhood dreams. Has she already achieved them or is she in the process of achieving them now? Or are they just childhood dreams?
Influenced by Disney channel, Tamikka wanted to be an actress. She also enjoyed drama at school. But when she found out about journalism, “A whole career where you can just write stuff”, she never turned back. In fact, she joined a journalism club in her school, she is writing for Her Campus, and even has her own film review blog now!
This conversation was educational and therapeutic for me. I don’t need to have big, perfect goals that I have to achieve in two years. I should and I can give myself time off to relax and enjoy being young. Side note: I should learn how to record on Zoom…
Words By: Madina Latipova
Interviewee: Tamikka Reid
Edited By: Dasha Pitts-Yushchenko