I’ve been receiving emails from a local mentor for a while now, and I usually just skim through them. Recently, though, I got curious enough to listen to one of her podcast episodes. The first one I played was about How to Stop Caring What People Think.
As I listened, I realized her story felt familiar.
She graduated from college with high honors and landed a government job—something many people would consider stable and prestigious. But eventually, she left that job and chose freelancing instead.
That was a bold move.
She could have easily stayed in the corporate world and built a predictable career path. Instead, she chose something uncertain.
And for some reason, that story resonated with me.
Because in my own way, I also made choices that people didn’t fully understand.
When Your Degree Doesn’t Define Your Life
I studied Secondary Education in college, which means many people expected me to become a teacher.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I entered the BPO industry and worked as a call center agent. (Click here to read more about my journey to freelancing.)
Back then, that also felt like a bold move.
Some people might have thought it was a strange decision. After all, I had a college degree that pointed to a very specific profession.
But the truth is, I didn’t feel passionate about teaching.
Teaching is a noble profession, and I deeply respect educators. But I also knew it wasn’t the path I wanted for my life.
You see, working in the BPO industry came with its own challenges.
You sacrifice a lot…working graveyard shifts (because I usually get assigned to a US-based account), sleeping during the day, missing holidays with family, and sometimes dealing with mandatory overtime. It’s a very demanding environment.
It wasn’t easy.
Eventually, when I decided to leave that world, my parents encouraged me to pursue teaching again.
But I still couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Not because I didn’t respect the profession, but because deep down, I knew it wasn’t the life I wanted.
When Life Forces You to Reevaluate Everything
Then the pandemic happened.
Like many people, I lost my job.
And I cried. I had never cried that hard over losing a job before. But looking back, it wasn’t just the job loss that broke me. Around that same time, I was also grieving the loss of my mother to COVID. So, everything felt overwhelming for me.
But, in the middle of that grief and uncertainty, I started questioning the decisions I had made in the past. I wondered if I had chosen the wrong path by leaving a career that could have given me more stability.
I began comparing myself to my former classmates in college… those who pursued teaching, earned their master’s degrees, and were already holding positions in schools.
Meanwhile, there I was, unemployed and unsure of what direction my life was going.
I felt like a failure.
I constantly doubted myself and wondered if I had wasted the degree I worked so hard to finish. Maybe I should have followed the same path they did. Maybe things would have been easier.
Those thoughts slowly turned into another worry: what other people might say.
Was I getting too old to start over?
Would people judge the choices I had made?
Those questions stayed in my mind and forced me to confront something I hadn’t fully realized before… how much I had been measuring my life against other people’s expectations.
Starting Over Again
But eventually, I had to make a decision.
That’s when I entered the world of freelancing.
At first, it wasn’t glamorous at all. It was never really glamorous, to be honest.
I took low-paying jobs online just to gain experience. The income wasn’t stable, and sometimes it barely felt enough.
It felt like starting from zero.
Even the experience I had gained from working in BPO companies didn’t seem to matter much in this new world.
Sure, I gained confidence in terms of communication skills and handling customers or clients…
But freelancing is still different.
People don’t really care about your past job titles. What matters is what you can deliver right now. (Read The Key Factors to Start a Solid Freelancing Career)
But I still kept going.
Because I knew that if I quit the moment things got hard, I would never gain the experience I needed to grow in this industry.
And if I had quit early, I wouldn’t have been able to build the reputation I have today or work with clients who value my work.
People Will Always Have Something to Say
Even now, there are moments when I still hear that little voice in my head.
The one that wonders if this path will last forever.
The one that worries about what people who know me might say about the career I chose.
But over time, I’ve realized that people will always have something to say.
Self-doubts and the opinions of others will never completely stop. They will show up again and again in different stages of life.
But what truly matters is having the courage to choose what’s right for you, regardless of what others think.
Because if you keep waiting for everyone to approve of your decisions, you might end up living a life that doesn’t truly belong to you.
Doing What’s Right for Your Life
Right now, I’m choosing to focus on building something for myself.
That means showing up online, becoming more visible (hence writing this blog), and continuing to grow my freelance business.
Yes, there will always be uncertainty.
Yes, there will always be opinions.
But life is too short to build your future around other people’s expectations.
Because at the end of the day, you’re the one who has to live with your decisions.
