“It’s ok to change your goals and dreams”- Madina Latipova
In honour of international women’s day, I put myself forward to write an article about a fellow member of our Her Campus Leeds society. We were tasked with talking to each other about a particular topic of discussion – ours was ‘goals’, but I will come back to that later. First, let me introduce you to the lovely individual that I interviewed: Madina Latipova.
Madina is 20 years old and is currently in her first year of university, studying Media and Communication. She was born in Uzbekistan and considers herself to be a small-town girl. One of her dreams was to study in England, which she fulfilled, as she attended a private school in Cambridge (where she did her A levels) before coming to Leeds for University.
Now let’s circle back to the topic at hand… goals.
‘Goals’ is quite a broad theme to discuss because there are so many aspects to it, but in this instance, I’ve split it up into sections, so you’ll get a glimpse into Madina’s childhood goals, current career goals and life goals and many more.
Childhood goals
When Madina was younger, her goals were more centred around the arts – music to be exact. She used to play classical music on the violin and thought that she would end up being either a music teacher or a violinist in an orchestra. But, as she got older, she realised that she didn’t actually want to pursue a career in music. The violin was something that her mum picked for her to learn; she discovered that she wasn’t as passionate about it as she had previously thought.
When she was around the age of 10, she wanted to be an author and dreamt of having her own books published. She was mostly interested in the fantasy genre as she read books that involved magic, fairies and mythical creatures, such as the Harry Potter series, Arthur and the Invisibles.
Career goals
When asked how her current goals differed from her childhood goals, Madina stated that her interests shifted to the media sector – journalism in particular. The fact that both her father and great grandfather were journalists, is what piqued her interest to begin with. Currently, she enjoys radio journalism, but she is unsure whether she wants to continue that into the future. What she is certain about though, is that she wants to do something within the journalism field and she hopes to figure it out by the end of her degree. In terms of career goals, she doesn’t have a specific job/role in mind, but she’s determined to do something that’s important as well as something she enjoys.
Life goals
When referring to life goals, I mean things that we want to accomplish at some point during our lifetime; in Madina’s case this is volunteering and travelling. She would love to volunteer at as many music festivals as possible, for as long as possible, in the future. This is because she would get the chance to experience festivals while helping others, which she sees as a cool concept. In terms of travelling, she would like to travel around the UK (like Cornwall, Exeter, Wales, Newcastle, Scotland and Oxford) as she has only visited a few places so far.
The goals that got away
This next category refers to the goals that we could have accomplished and were possible for us to achieve, if we had made slightly different choices in our lives; these are the goals that got away. For Madina, she would have continued to be more of a sporty person as she used to actively play tennis before she moved to England. Another goal she would have set out to achieve would have been to try her hand in modelling. It would have been a great way for her to learn the art of photography and modelling; such as how to pose and the various facial expressions you can make.
Pending goals
These are goals that we want to achieve now, in the present day, but we are yet to set out to achieve them. Madina’s pending goals are: learning to use photoshop (as she would like to make cool graphics and designs), learning a new language (she was learning Spanish before moving to England and would like to continue) and learning to skateboard (who doesn’t want to be a cool skater-girl?).
Final thoughts on goals
I was interested in knowing whether Madina was a strict goals kind of person or if she preferred to live life without planning and focussing on achieving set targets. I can reveal that she is not really a goals kind of gal. Although she thinks that it’s important to have an idea of what you want to do, she recognises that your goals and dreams don’t always stay the same, so it’s normal for them to change; you don’t have to stick to one idea your whole life.
In closing, I’ll leave you with a quote from Madina herself, which is quite central to our topic of discussion: ”you don’t have to plan your life out when you’re 10 years old, you can do it steadily…I’m still young but I will figure it out”.
Words By: Tamikka Reid
Interviewee: Madina Latipova
Edited By: Rosie Harkin-Adams