It's the question that has been asked since the day we could speak.
The question everyone seems to feel obliated to ask any male or female under the age of 21. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The wording has probably changed a thousand times in your lifetime but the underlying question has always been there. When you started high school. When you graduated high school. When you started college. Even when you went into your first day of kindergarden. But now that graduating college is off in the distance, you get the question so often not only from others, but even from yourself.
What do you want to be when you grow up? The answer has changed at least a million times since that first day of kindergarden. Ballerina princess, firefighter, doctor, zoo keeper, marine biologist, singer, and the list goes on from there with every new hobby or interest you found yourself falling in love with. But now, after everyone has told you that you have your whole life to decide, now is the time to make the final decision. You're about to walk across the stage, get a diploma in your favorite subject that you just spent the last handful of years studying, and what are you going to do with it?
Some people know right as they graduate high school what the rest of their lives will be like. They have already planned out all the degrees they need, what college they will attend, and what company they will be working for. But for others, the details are still in the gray area and seem a lot harder to make concrete. Whether you are graduating high school or college, you should not feel rushed into making decisions that might not be what you truly want.
Your future is exactly that; yours. As long as you are not sitting on the sidelines waiting for decisions to made for you, you have the time to really iron out all the details. Your future is important, so making it they way you want in order to be happy is important as well. Don't let a looming date put a ticking time bomb on your happiness. Make each decision final at your own pace, taking one day at a time. It might not seem like forever, but you have the rest of your life to do everything that gives you a satisfied future. Set up a plan book, make a budget, use calendars to plan what you are going to get accomplished that day or week. Don't let the overwhelming future crash down on you like a wave all at once.
Deep down you know the kind of future that you want. Do not view your upcoming graduation as a ticking time bomb for your future failures, but as a door opening and allowing you to have more control and decision making for a bright and successful future.