As May moves quickly, students across America are preparing to graduate high school. While there is the excitement of senior nights, picking up caps and gowns, and end-of-the-year festivals or cookouts, this is often undercut by the dread of one prospect: what next? It's a question that has casually been lauded at them since they started their senior year, and as graduation nears, the pressure of having to decide an entire life's future at the age of 18 becomes a haunting anxiety.
High school seniors, take a breath. These past nine months have probably been some of the most fun times with prom, pep rallies, and all the senior-themed celebrations. But more than that, you have probably dealt with the stress of ACTs, writing college essays, applying to colleges, school work, finals, giving your all to your last year of sports, band, or extra curriculars, dealing with scholarship applications, financial aid, wondering how you can afford college, or what you want to do besides college. And at the summit of this mountain of stress looms the question which has shaped your past 13 years and motivated your hard work and anxieties this year-- what do you want to do after high school?
I know it seems like this question needs an answer, as parents, teachers, friends, and colleges demand one. The truth is, you don't have to know what you want to do with the rest of your life. Even into your 20s or beyond, you won't know what you want to do with the rest your life. You're (on average) 18 years old, and your life of independence is only just beginning. You're going to take classes in college that you never knew existed while in high school. You're going to be allowed to change majors, (and if you're like me, you change it within the second week of your first semester at college). You're going to have experiences that shape you as a person, and discover who you are, what you're good at, and what you want goals you want to achieve.
The question you should be asking yourself at this point in life is what don't you want to do? If you find that you like your theater class but hate your biology class, it's OK to accept that you don't want to do a nursing program. If you love your volunteer work at an animal shelter, but your shadowing at a nursery school leaves you empty at the end of the day, then that's great! You know that you don't want to go in to education, and you don't have to hold steadfast to that plan. While you should never give up on your dream, it's OK to stray from a plan you had to make up at 17 or 18 because society said so. When the question becomes, "What don't I want to do?" rather than, "What do I want to do with the rest of my life?" the decision making becomes less stressful and more fulfilling.
It is true that every decision you make shapes your life, but one decision doesn't decide your entire future. There's no wrong college, wrong degree, or wrong career choice, just as much as there's no pre-destined right one. You get to shape your life day by day, week by week, and year by year, so don't let the question of, "What next?" fill you with the impending dread of whatever comes next has to be permanent.
The world is full of possibilities that you're just on the brink of exploring as you graduate high school. If you don't know what you want to with your life, then release yourself from the pressure of having to come up with an answer, and explore your new, budding world. Life is more than the cookie cutter steps of college, a desk job, marriage, and kids. While that's not a bad plan, it's not the only one. So, when some asks you what you will be doing with the rest of your life, it's OK to confidently say you don't know, as long as you have the courage to find out what's out there for you.
