Greetings,
Let me introduce myself. I’m a Belgian student, soon to graduate as a master in geology. I started my studies with the intention of understanding the earth and its processes. During my studies I have come to know myself and my interests better. I already followed a lot of courses about climate, past climate and ecology, even doing my thesis about an environmental reconstruction. I now know what I want to do with my life but I’m having a very hard time deciding what to do and finding the right persons to solve all my questions. I’m hoping that I can expand my vision by posting here, and I of course hope that someone can help me.
So what I would really want to do with my life. For starters, I am a veganist and I can’t stand killing animals for the delight of pleasing your tastebuds for 10 seconds. The practices of the meat industry is wrong in my eyes and it would be better to eat less meat, not only for animal rights, but also for health reasons and for the environmental problems. Reducing meat and dairy intake would ideally play a very big role in my future job, either direct or indirect. Other than my big love for animals, I also love nature as a whole, and hate to see it destroyed by humans. My other big interests are nature, climate, environment and helping people (educating, making more conscious,…). I also love the palaeohistory and evolution of man, and the link between the past and the future. For example I like the fact man started eating meat because of necessity in the grasslands, but technology and knowledge now is more advanced so that eating meat is absolutely no requirement anymore. Saying this I also love (green) technology, problemsolving, inventing and aim to combine all my interests in one. Very important for my later job is enormous variation, a lot of travelling to distant countries and able to look at what I have accomplished.
Basically it comes down to this point: I want to change the world… for as much possible by a single man.
I have some paths I am willing to take. (1) Either continue a study, for example get another masters degree about environment. (2) Try to start a phd. (3) Find a suitable job that honors my needs.
If I start (1), then my job problem remains after the study ends. But still it could be good to start another study, although I don’t quite know which one to do. The closest I can get to environmental studies in my country is: bio-engineer: environmental technologies. But that specifies about creating clean air, water and soil, and not really what I want to do.
(2) would be possible, but the biggest problem is to find a promotor. Nowhere in my country can I find a person with interest in climate and environment concerning animals.
(3) Recently I have started looking for jobs and I have come to realize I detest industry. Maybe because I have only heard personal stories of people in oil and chemistry business, but I don’t see myself working in an industry where money is top priority. Other than industry, I don’t know much. There are ngo’s but it seems to me they rarely offer jobs and mostly rely on volunteers.
Ideally I would be doing research about the consequences of meat and dairy on the environments or climate change, gathering evidence from all over the world, while educating people and saving animals and nature at the same time.
I still have some months but it really starts to urge. Thank you very much for reading!
(I pardon myself of possible errors and I realize I may have forgot some info, but you can always ask!)