As a teenager, people ask you about your future plans constantly. On regular days it may only come up once in conversation, but during the holidays, it seems to be a constant interrogation. For me, it started when I was in sixth grade. The hot topic was where I was attending high school, and although it was two and a half years in the future it was an easy answer. So this question did not bother me much, and my relatives were pleased with my immediate answer. As time passed, the questions became tougher and the answers were far less concrete.
Every high school student has heard the words, “So, where are you going to college?” uttered by relatives, family friends, teachers and even random strangers. From personal experience, I can say that this is not something you want to hear when you have no idea where you are going to go, or have not even visited a single school. Instead of focusing on high school and the milestones that come with it, people are constantly looking towards the next step.
The first example that comes to mind is the ACT. Many students, including myself, fixated on a single number. This number may only represent a score on a four-hour test but it is made to feel like it means everything. Teachers and even parents drill the idea that the ACT will determine your college acceptance and in turn, your future. This is an incredible amount of pressure for a teenager that amounts to hundreds of dollars and hours wasted on tutoring. Now, I am not saying that the ACT has no significance whatsoever and students should give up. It is important to work at one’s personal best in order to achieve positive results but in the end your score is merely a number. After I applied to schools, I was never again asked for my ACT score. It was simply a necessary evil I had to encounter to get into college but it does not define my future.
Although I understand the mere significance the ACT has on my life, hindsight is 20/20. I currently encounter the “So, what are you going to do once you graduate?” interrogation on an almost daily basis. This mere sentence causes me even more stress than the ACT and my college decision did combined. When I entered freshman year, I had no career path whatsoever. I decided to begin as a business major because it was open ended and gave me a lot of options. Many of my friends, on the other hand, went into school knowing exactly what their major would be and had a specific track that would get them into a graduate program. As freshman year went on, I became extremely envious of these students. They seemed to have it all together and knew what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it. Meanwhile, I was getting good grades but I had no idea where my passions lied or if I even enjoyed any of my business classes. I constantly felt anxious about my future even though I had not even completed first semester of my freshman year.
I know I am not the only college student who feels this way because it is almost impossible not to. We are constantly reminded to plan ahead and stick with a major so we can graduate on time. Yes, it is important to stay focused and eventually pick a major that you want to pursue. But at what cost? When we are constantly looking towards the next step, we forget where we are in the present. College gives students the opportunity to find out who they are and what they want to become. The only way to understand one’s potential is to gain as many experiences as possible. This is impossible if a nineteen-year-old is locked into one specific track that barely gives them enough time to breath.
If you have known exactly what you will do when you “grow up” your whole life, that’s okay. If you have switched that dream five hundred times, that’s okay too. The truth is, you can never predict your next step in life. Life throws curveballs constantly and you have to be able to adapt. Sometimes you will end up exactly where you expected and other times you will be in foreign territory. Either way, answering the timeless “What are you going to do next?” interrogation is not going to change anything.
