Suzanne Slezak ’03 writes the following post to all current students at Wellesley. She encourages students to take it one tiny step at a time; you don’t need to know what you are going to do the rest of your life the moment you become a graduate of Wellesley College. It’s OK to be unsure of where life will take you.
I graduated from Wellesley in 2003 with a degree in anthropology, a world-wide fellowship adventure ahead of me, and a plan to start a farm school. Today, in 2013, I own a 15-passenger van, a donkey jawbone, and am a full-time touring musician in a Mexo-Americana band called David Wax Museum. Did I think that I would end up singing and dancing and playing the jawbone when I walked across the stage to claim my Wellesley degree? No way! I knew I loved performing, but never thought I would do it professionally. I knew I wanted a life of travel, but never dreamed I would fly to Shanghai to perform with a rock band. I knew I wanted a life “outside the box,” but honestly, I didn’t have a clue that it would be this far outside of it.
The thing is, this “life after Wellesley” happens one tiny step at a time. For me, it started with a Watson Fellowship to study spinning and weaving around the world. I knelt down with a backstrap loom with Mayan women, chased sheep around New Zealand, learned to weave silk with a weaver who made silk for the queen of Thailand, and spun cotton threads on Gandhi’s front porch. I loved the spontaneity and adventure and wanted that in my future.
Then I returned to Virginia, my childhood home. I tutored kids with Asperger syndrome, taught a class at my old high school, cared for my dying grandmother, played music on the street, and lived in a cabin without running water. I was also working on starting a farm school since I knew I wanted my work and life to feel connected and intertwined. But I still didn’t have a clue what was ahead.
In my mid-twenties, I faced a serious illness that disrupted about 12 months of my life. My whole trajectory shifted, and I came to realize I needed the stability of a “real job.” So I contacted the CWS and found myself back in Boston living with a Wellesley friend, wearing a business suit, and working in a development office. This was exactly what I needed but was nothing like what I had in mind for myself.
As a way to make friends, I picked up my fiddle and, within a year, was playing in several bands. In 2009, I quit my office job to go on my first six-week tour with David Wax Museum, thinking it would be a good “transitional” adventure before starting grad school or another job. Well, the tour was a success, and now here I am, a full-time small business owner and performer of a touring band—a job that includes financial planning, accounting, publicity, management, logistics, creative collaboration, and of course the highs and lows of performance.
But here’s the thing: When you graduate from Wellesley, you do NOT have to find your passion. You do NOT have to change the world. You do NOT have to serve others. You do have to figure out how to be yourself. Instead of looking at the long path in front of you, just take one small step toward it. It may not be in the direction you eventually end up choosing, but it will give you a data point. And you need lots of data points to make an informed decision. Try traveling to Indonesia, or living in a tent, or delivering mail. Only by experimenting will you be able to learn about yourself and what you need in order to thrive. So do yourself a favor and make errors while you’re young. That way, you’ll know that they are not errors, but rather wonderful life experiments that keep pointing you in the right direction.
I wish you health and peace and many adventures along the way.
Your Wellesley sister,
Suz