You've heard it before. From your aunts, uncles, parents, friends, friends' parents. You've probably asked it to yourself several times, usually in a tone of panic. Why the anxiety, why the sudden shaking hands? Why do we feel so trapped by a question that is supposed to open up a world of possibilities for us?

Probably because we are expected to know the answer to this question at a very young age. I don't think we ever really figure out the answer to that question, let alone at age 18. Forcing adolescents to pick one thing they want to do with their lives convinces them that there is only one thing they can do with their lives, which simply isn't true.

Life is not a linear process. We grow up, mess up, make mistakes, fix them, then go on to make more later on. But it's the mistakes we make that get us to where we are going. It's the majors we choose that lead us to the one we graduate with, the jobs we have before we find the one we truly love. The path of life has many forks and sometimes they don't necessarily leadanywhere. Rather, it is the combination of all the forks that is our destination.

No one really seems to understand that these days. Our parents and our universities don't factor in the time we need to make up our minds or the time we need to make the necessary mistakes. Our parents want us to make enough money and due to that often push us towards business-like careers, brushing over the fields we may actually be interested in. Countless times, my mother has asked me what I would do with an English degree, as if there weren't valid jobs available in the field. Universities, too, seem to have the expectation that we already know what we want to do coming in, and that expectation only sends those who don't know into a scramble to choose anything they are remotely interested in.

I want to encourage people to follow their hearts. The only way you will end up doing something you really love is if you make an effort to follow where you are guided, to explore your options and choose the one that is best for you and only you. Don't chase after money, don't try to please anyone. Even if you are wealthy at the end of the day in a field you don't entirely love, you will be poor in spirit. Your family and friends only want you to be happy, and the only way to make them proud is to do something you love, even if it is contrary to what they expected for you.

The clothing brand Life Is Good said it best (probably because they know what it is that makes life good): "Do what you love, and love what you do."