All our lives we have been asked the same daunting question, what do you want to be when you grow up? When we were young the possibilities seemed endless: ballerina, astronaut, actress, doctor, all these ideas seemed attainable and appealing.
Now, as we have grown older, we are at the point in our lives where people ask this question and expect to hear a reasonable answer. When I would get asked this question I would begin to feel the weight of the world on my chest and start freaking out about how I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life.
At least, I used to do this, until I figured out a few things.
Just because you have no idea what you want to do when you grow up does not make you any less of a person than the people who seem to have it figured out. The only thing this says about you is how deeply you care. You don’t know what you want to be yet because you want to make a decision you will be happy with in the future.
This decision is a big one that requires a lot of thought. You should put your heart and soul into whatever you wind up doing with your life, which is why this decision feels so major. But here’s a secret: no one has everything figured out, no matter what they tell you. They may seem like they have it all put together but no one is perfect.
Even though you may not know what you want to be when you grow up it doesn’t put you behind anyone else. Take a deep breath, you have time, you have so much time. Often times, when I would be worrying about what I want to do when I grow up, my mom would joke she still has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up.
As I think about it, she is right, people of all ages are still growing and learning. We are human we make mistakes, we take the wrong paths sometimes, but we live and we learn from all of it.
You are allowed to feel lost, it's normal in this world full of possibilities. So when someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up respond a confident, “I don't know, yet”, take pride in not knowing. There is an endless amount of possibilities in the unknown. If you try one thing and fail, get back up again and keep discovering.
“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” ―Jeniffer Lee
