The story of how I became a linguist

It's 2013. I earn my high school diploma and associate's degree simultaneously, I graduate in the top 10% of my class and was recognized as part of the Distinguished Program (I learned French as a third language). I was an incredible student, not because I was more intelligent than my peers, but because I would work hard and would always give my best. My teachers told me I would be a successful professional: someone prestigious that made lots of money. This blurred my view of success and of how to get there.

I finish my B.S. in Finance with a 3.4 GPA from The University of Texas at Dallas in 2015. I start working at Fidelity Investments' bilingual 401(k) department.

I quit my job in mid-2017 and I decide to pursue a B.S. in Software Engineering. Everyone in my family is an engineer, so I figured I could give it a try.

Within a year I realize that engineering was not for me. I was suffering. Since it was my second bachelor's degree, I was not getting any financial aid. I was attending classes online and felt very little support from my professors and peers. I decide it is time to stop pursuing this path.

I drop out of engineering school in 2019 and decide to go back to finance. I get an offer for a 5-month contract at Fidelity Investments' Fund Accounting team.

I finish my contract in March 2020. COVID-19 takes over the news (and the world). This gives me a minute to pause and reevaluate my life. I admit I don’t like finance either, I ask myself what are my true passions in life, and what kind of career would bring me joy and satisfaction. The answer was simple: languages. I had always loved languages and studied them for fun, why not turn them into a career? I knew deep down that I had always been hesitant to enter that field because I was told there was no future in the arts. Even though, on paper, I had always been considered to be exceptional, I felt everything but brilliant. I felt like a failure for feeling lost after graduation. I found no satisfaction trying to succeed in the corporate world, and the frustration of disliking my career affected every area of my life. So I took a leap of faith, and began chasing after my dream of becoming a linguist.

After hundreds (I am not exaggerating) of rejections, I finally get my first translation job. I was only there for a few months, but I know that it is thanks to this experience that I was able to capture the attention of DISD and receive a job from them later that same year.

While it's probably true that I'm missing out on a monetary reward by leaving finance and, especially, engineering behind, I rather do what I love and have enough time to travel, paint, and enjoy my other hobbies. Society thinks growth exclusively means climbing up the ladder and making more money, but growth is multidimensional. Trees don't only grow upwards, their roots grow downwards and their branches grow outwards, bending around obstacles they encounter along the way.

DISD not only allows me, but also encourages me to learn more languages. Thanks to their support I am able to continue studying French at the Alliance Française and will continue to improve my Arabic. I also hope to learn German one day. I find meaning in my work because it aligns with my values, and this is only the beginning of the amazing translation career that lies ahead!

Make the adjustments you need and invest in yourself, allow room for error, and stay true to your priorities. If something doesn't align with your long-term vision, it doesn't need to be in your life.