What’s Your Why?

When I was around 13/14 years old, I got comfortable in my first Religious Studies class of year 9, organised my pens in a colour coordinated order and scoffed at the alphabetic seating plan because I wasn’t a fan of the guy that came after me in the register. Then was met with a personal attack!! (Kinda…) My teacher asked us to put up our hands if we were religious, then for those of us who did, he asked why – why are you a Christian? And I realised that in those few 13 years of life, I’d (not surprisingly) never really thought of this question, and my immediate instinct was “well… because my family is…?”

So this isn’t a post to do with religion or the ins and outs and deepness of the answer to that question above – but it got me thinking recently about my why. Why exactly do I do X, Y and Z. I’m asked often for example why I go to the gym so much, why I write a blog – so why not condense it into one crisp blog post…

 

 

Why I blog
I blog for a few reasons – but #1 is because I just love to write. I actually did consider moving (or supplementing) this platform with YouTube once but decided against it because I couldn’t quite get to the bottom of how I would add more value on that platform vs. everyone else doing the same thing, if it was something I truly wanted to do or something I felt like I had to do, or if it aligned with my long term goals. I am a writer at heart, I’ve been a writer before anything else and this is a means of pursuing that first ever love. Second of all, I really do like to share my experiences and advice (or even just a funny story or two) in hopes that it could be beneficial to someone out there (and when I hear back from people that my posts have helped – that feels amazing!), because that’s what I enjoy reading and honestly what I would’ve loved to read when I was slightly younger and insecure and appreciative of any advice.

 

 

Why I train
So there’s a “why I train” and a “why I started training”. In sum – I started training because I was gained over 10 kg and wanted to lose it. I became intrigued with the idea of lifting weights as according to Instagram, this was the route to go down to truly tone your body and reap the rewards of incredible results. Then – well, I became totally obsessed. I train 1) because I really enjoy it, I always feel super pumped after a good gym sesh and more often that not, leave the gym whispering that was gooood. 2) I train because it provides me with some sort of headspace – I work a fast paced job and to add to that, traditionally I’ve always let my thoughts run away from me (not so much these days), so taking some time to totally focus on what I think is bettering myself just gets my head to where it’s meant to be (I find it particularly useful after a stressful day). Finally 3) I train because I like the results! It amazes me how much heavier I can squat now vs. one year ago, how much faster I can run on the treadmill in HIIT sessions vs. when I started, how I’ve literally changed the shape of my body. Today I was even doing an ab circuit and realised how much stronger my core is vs. a few months back. The body is indeed an amazing thing.

 

 

Shop This Look
Top: Zara
Skirt*: LOTD (similar)
Boots*: JDW (similar)
Photos: Marianne Olaleye

 

Why I got into/started my career in Investment Banking
Now here’s a question I get a whole lot – especially from people looking into the industry. Unfortunately, it’s not quite a philosophical or inspirational story, but here we go.

I didn’t really wanted to ever even think about careers at all before I started uni and was confronted by it. The truth was I never had any clue what I wanted to do, in fact the only thing I was ever sure about when I was really young was that I wanted to and needed to be an actress. But after GCSE drama went to sh*t, so did my passion for that. Then I was lost – but that didn’t stop people from asking me what I wanted to do in uni and beyond. I settled on Accounting & Finance (A+F) because I enjoyed Economics & Maths but not enough to take either as full subjects, I also knew that LSE (the uni I went to – more below) offered some flexibility in the A+F course around modules to study. Long story short, I started uni and realised most people on my course (and in my uni in general) were applying to these things called “spring week internships” – the viable career options at the LSE seemed to be: banking, consultancy, law or professional services. After a bit of research, I decided I liked banking and strategy consulting, but one US bank was just about to close their applications, so I sent mine in. I got it.

Once you get on the internship train, if all goes to plan, and you decide it’s a train you’re happy to say on – you’re carried to the end of the finish line fairly seamlessly (but not without hard work!) by a means of fast tracked interviews, more internships, stress, discipline, networking and eventually that “holy grail” job offer.

 

 

Why I moved out of my family home so young
I moved out of home when I was 18 for uni (as most of us do), but the difference is once I was out – I didn’t return. Indeed, I’ve been living out in central London, for a good 5 years now *shivers* (well, now I’m based in zone 2 rather than 1 for a number of reasons surrounding work & value for money, but, yeah…). I did consider moving back home post uni to save more (it seemed to be what everyone was doing so I wanted to copy), but after a few chats with friends and family, and a tiny bit of financial planning, I decided staying out was best for me. I’ve been in quite a blessed position since I finished uni so it hasn’t caused me many stresses living out so quickly and I’ve still been able to save (and even jump on the property ladder!) I value the independence and ease of it so much, and especially given that my family lives on the border of London where transport links are somewhat poor, personally, this has been a the right decision.

Why I went to the LSE
Here’s an easy one – I went to the LSE because 1) they was a lot of flexibility around the A+F course – sure I had yearly A+F related modules but I also supplemented this with modules in Maths, Statistics and Philosphy to name just a few. 2) When I checked on the Complete University Guide for rankings they did pretty well and actually were #1 for my course back then – so it was a no brainer! Also, I wanted to stay in London. I remember getting that acceptance – best day ever.

Why I went vegetarian for a month
Wait, what? …Let’s talk about that next week when it’s officially February. 😉

 

* – this was a gifted item