At the end of week 12, I promised myself I’d spend the weekend at home in Edinburgh. I desperately needed to decompress after a very long and difficult semester 2, and prepare for the revision weeks and exams ahead. I stumbled upon a livestream when browsing YouTube, showing Phineas and Ferb episodes. A childhood favorite of mine, I immediately clicked on the live stream, and watched for 3 hours straight. While I was watching, I couldn’t help but notice how creative and imaginative shows were when we were young. And from there, I couldn’t help but realize how much imagination I’ve lost over the years.
Some of my favorite “Phineas and Ferb” inventions are the Backyard Beach, their Jetpack Volleyball games, the Everything Coaster, and the Backyard Treehouse Fighters. Watching the two brothers invent something new and completely imaginative gave me a complete wake-up call. Think back in time to what you wanted to be as a child. For me, it was a dolphin trainer. Or a princess. The next day, I wanted to be a zoo owner. As a child, the television shows we watched enhanced our creativity. It taught us that the world was our oyster, and that if we could dream it, we could do it. Why has that gone away now?
I truly think that the ability to dream and think of things in the future that don’t yet exist is what society is missing right now. Ask 10 students on the streets of St Andrews what they want to do when they leave university. I bet at least half would tell you “consulting” or “finance” without hesitation. But is that really what they want to do? I can bet if they really reflected on their dreams, goals, and life wishes, it’s not. Society tells us that getting a high-paying job that is seen as “what you’re supposed to do” is the right path.
The fear of not doing something “productive” in the eyes of society is holding so many people back from living their dream lives and being truly happy. And perhaps the first step in the right direction to finding our purpose as young adults is reconnecting with our inner child. Try watching Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse, Phineas and Ferb, or one of your favorites from the early 2000s (they’re all TV gold in my mind), and you’ll quickly see how we were so inspired as children, and why we need to keep this child-like view on the world, approaching things with a young sense of curiosity and excited sense of purpose.
While our future careers may not be a Water Fairy like we saw in Tinkerbell, nor will we be able to attend Princess Charm School like in the beloved “Barbie” film, it doesn’t mean we can’t be explorative and creative with our futures. Disney employs Imagineers, who are pretty much adult versions of Phineas and Ferb. Being a dolphin trainer was my job as a kid – that’s a career too! The hustle culture around LinkedIn and consulting and finance jobs, in which employees consistently work from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., is an easy trap to fall into when society tells you that’s the “right” path to success. With “Phineas and Ferb” still playing while writing this, I’m telling you that reconnecting with our inner child is more important than ever. Success should not be measured by money or status, but by how much purpose we feel in our lives. Approach your future with a child-like sense of wonder and see what unfolds.