What is your plan for the rest of your life? What are you doing now that will impact your tomorrows? Is it good or bad? What are you trying to be when you get older? Have you even started? What are your dreams? How do you plan on reaching them? What are you going to do to make sure that your plans fall through?

I ask those questions because I didn't have the answer to any of them and I never asked myself what I wanted to be when I get older. I was a boy who didn't have a plan or anything except playing ball. I wanted to be the next Isaiah Thomas in the league. My plan was to keep practicing every day. I had no real goals until I met my freshmen algebra teacher when I was in high school. I didn't listen to him at first when he asked me those questions. But when I was failing almost every class except for gym my first marking period, I saw how disappointed my parents were. I was cut from the basketball team and when I thought about my life, I thought about his words and questions. When I started to go to him after school for tutoring to help me improve my grades in my classes, it changed my life dramatically. I won't ever forget what my Algebra teacher Mr. Esteban did for me over the years and I'll never be the same.

I ask myself these questions now, answer them or find the answer to them, work harder in and out of school, and know where I want to go. I have developed plans and am still developing plans to make sure I get where I want to be. I've been successful with my short term goals lately and they are going to help me with my long-term goals soon. I'm a lot different than what I was 5 years ago and I have grown tremendously. I have big dreams I'm trying to accomplish one day and I'm going to work very hard so I can reach them. When I get there, I want to give back to my community, and take care of my family. Everything I went through got me where I needed to be today. I don't regret anything I been through. I found my groove and will keep going with it. I thank my teacher for that.

For those of you who haven't found your groove yet, it's definitely not the end of the world and is not too late. But time waits for no one, so you have to be on your a game. If you don't have an interest in anything, I recommend you to find something that interests you or you are good at. That's always a good start. Everything depends on you, especially since you are the one trying to get somewhere. First, think or research something you could do with that interest you feel you can get you somewhere and can satisfy you at the end of the way. Second, try to get in contact with someone who does that thing that interests you and try to get an interview or sit down with that person so you could learn more about it. The person you contacted can tell you about steps they took to get there and can give you some tips or advice on the things you should or shouldn't do to get you where they are. It's good to keep in touch with more people because you can get many different answers that can give you more options to think about it.

Third, take in all the information and try to decide on a path you believe that's right for you and try to get a second opinion from a person close to you that knows you the best. Fourth, devise a checklist that you feel you can follow and help you get to where you want to be. Arrange it from short term to long term goals. Make you talk about each step you are going to take to accomplish each of these short term and long term goals. Lastly, just follow those plans and try your best to make sure nothing compromises your plans because it does happen. Just in case that does happen, try to revise that plan and take the alternate route. Sure it could still land you where you want to be. But most importantly make you happy. That's what life is all about, being happy.

I hope this article was helpful and got you thinking what you would love to do. Remember to follow the steps and you'll have a passion you'll want to pursue. So keep your mind open. Find that groove like I did and just good with it. Good luck!