What others expect from you may not always be the best path to take

Hello Steemians,

Tomorrow is my last day of work at the internship where I have been now for almost 3 months and I would like to share a little back story of my studies so far.

Before I started studying IT I was in another school studying to be a sea captain. I was in my third year when I made the decision to quit my studies there. I always wanted to work at sea but I guess I had a completely different picture of it in my head. It started when i was off on my first "turn" at sea. It was a medium sized dry bulk ship, about 67 m if I remember correctly. First week on was going great. I remembered all my knots and even practiced them in my cabin so that when I actually had to make them it would look like I was a pro. Even the technical parts went well, since I had to spend half of the internship in the engine room I spent my evenings reading about engines . The chief engineer even gave me extra points for the period I was working with him.

It was later on when we started getting to the big waters that i noticed it.. I get seasick EXTREMELY easily. And that my friends is a big no no when working at sea. You think you can somehow get past it and just wait for it to go away but it doesn't for as long as there are waves. When you’re out there in the middle of the sea you know it's at least couple hours minimum until the waves get lighter so you run out of options. Luckily I found that even though I threw up everything that was in my system during these times, if I laid down and closed my eyes it got a lot better. Unfortunately lying in bed with your eyes closed kinda limits the work you can do. I knew the other crew members weren't exactly impressed by me staying in the cabin for multiple days at a time during storms. I actually think they kind of knew how bad I was feeling though so that kept the "pranks and jokes" away (pranks are surprisingly common at sea).

When we made it to the port I was so happy, no more throwing up I was thinking. We spent 7 days in the same place since the lock in the harbor was broken and we couldn't leave. So I had 7 days with no waves. For me that meant I would be eating good for 7 days straight, since I had now been without food and only throwing up for about four days straight and feeling very weak. The lock was fixed and traffic started moving in and out of the port again. We left and headed back for our home harbor. The way back was even worse than the way there. The storms started blowing up to 28 m/s and the waves got bigger and bigger but one thing kept me happy and awake, I would be home soon.

Here's a picture of me when i was still working at sea. It was about -27° degrees outside.

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Couple days later the storm passed and we were once again on calm waters. I went up to the bridge( place where you steer and drive the ship) and met the rest of the crew. They were actually really cool and just asking how i was and just basically telling me they all know how shitty it can get. The first officer even told me that he had the same problem and he had made the decision to continue working at sea. 30 years later he was still there working and still had the same problem. He told me that if I could I should reconsider and do something that suits me better because he said even though you get used to the sea sickness it never really stops. That thought really got to me. I finally arrived at the port I was getting off at and made my way home by train. I thought a lot about everything that happened. But I still decided to continue my studies and that i would not let the “sea sickness” decide for me. 2 years later and 3 more internships it took for me to understand i was wrong.

At this time i got called in to the military and started my military service. I still had the same problem but the military really altered my way of thought and changed my perspective on the whole thing. I wasn’t in a hurry anywhere. I could find a job on a cruise ship that only goes around the archipelago. This would mean no waves but still me working at sea. After I was finished with my military service I was in luck to receive a call from a big shipping company that offered cruises around our waters. They asked me to come work for them as a OS(Ordinary seaman) for the summer to which i gladly agreed.

This time it was different. There were no waves but the crew and ship weren’t the same either. On this ship I was freed from one problem but noticed another big one. It lacked the whole “maritime” feel to it. I worked there for a little more than one whole summer and i noticed the whole crew just being very “down” all the time and even when shift would end i would stay out to talk with someone but the whole crew just went to their cabins and stayed there til morning. I was so alone the whole time when I wasn’t working. Just sitting in my cabin alone watching series. I felt like no one wanted to talk to me. Even if i asked for help or advice i would get a bad attitude back. This hit me pretty hard since i was the type that would smile the whole time and just want to talk about stuff and get to know people. So after about 14 weeks on a cruise ship I decided the sea wasn’t for me. The only other thing in my life that I was really interested in was computers. So now it was time for me to start studying IT.

I applied to the closest school that was teaching IT and got to start my studies after just a couple of months. I was very happy to find that the classes were very interesting to me. Everything went great and i passed all the courses of the first year with good grades.

When i went out on my first internship it felt completely different. When i was at sea working I always felt like i didn’t really fit in with the crew and never really felt welcomed. Mostly stared at to be honest. But now i actually felt like i had things to talk about with my boss. We talked and shared ideas about IT related things. Even got him to read about the blockchain(surprised he'd never really gotten interested) and of course introduced him to Steem.

I work directly with a system admin for a fairly large network of about 2000 computers. The size was a lot bigger than what i had ever seen before and it was so interesting to see how everything works in that quantity. I learned about management of files, accounts and security. Mostly windows based but also learned a lot about Linux since a few of the servers and computers were running Fedora. Also got to work on a personal “project” on the side where i was recommended to start learning a programming language to which i chose Java (I had already started learning Java a little earlier). Now it’s three months later and I have learned as much during this period as i did during my entire school year. It feels great. Now i actually never think about the sea life anymore because i feel like i’ve found my place. I have one year left in school and after that i’m finished and might actually continue my studies on a university level.

Here is another picture of me at around the time when i decided to start studying IT instead. I had just finished my last week on the cruise ship so I took a vacation in Barcelona. It was awesome.

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I just wanted to share this short story with you guys and i guess the point of the story is to never think that it's to late to make a change. Seize the opportunities that are given to you. There is always something else you can try and if that also doesn’t feel right then on to the next one. All I can say is I’m truly happy that I didn’t just stay quiet and continue my studies when it felt wrong.

Hope someone was able to get something out of this and I hope you all have found your right paths down this road we call life.

Peace out, Strawhat