Sitting in the guidance counselor’s office, I’m waiting for yet another meeting where I discuss my future and the choices I must make in high school to reach my potential goals. And before the meeting, just like every other time, I feel a wave of anxiety, uncertainty, and unease. Sure, just like most of my other friends, I had somewhat of a plan. Study hard, get good grades, and eventually get accepted into a good university.
But if one looked deeper into this plan, they’d find doubts and confusion that threaten the very basis that it was built on. What do I study? What is my passion in life? My talents? Where do I want to go to university? What happens after? Question after question until I’m left discouraged and beat-down.
In today’s society, we’re expected to make crucial decisions about our future at such a young age. When we’re 16 or 17, we have to make the “right” decisions about the classes we want to take that influence the university we go to which then influences the jobs we get and eventually influences the rest of our life. But hey, no pressure. At an age where I don’t even know what I want to have for lunch tomorrow, it’s overwhelming to have to plan my whole future.
However, after countless hours thinking about, trying to find the answers to my endless questions, I realized a few things.
First, it’s critical to remember that you don’t necessarily have to “find” your meaning in life, you can create it. Most people are often trying to find their passion, what they’re meant to do. But what if that’s the problem. Instead of trying to find this predestined job or profession, creating our own meaning is so much more exciting. Rather than waiting for our “one true calling,” it’s much more beneficial to go out and experience life, create our purpose. Enroll in various, different classes in school, experiment with new hobbies, travel to exotic places.
Trust me, in the process, you’ll learn so much about yourself, your strengths, and your weaknesses. Once you learn all this about yourself, it can be easier to set goals and create a plan to achieve them. You can then focus on questions like what actions/steps will help achieve your career goals? Where you can get help? Who will support you?
Having this active mindset and creating a plan for yourself, it’s much more likely to feel like you have more control over your future. This reduces so much of the anxiety and
pressure related to these decisions.
Second, although it seems like every decision you make now holds the utmost influence over your future, it really doesn’t. Yeah, the actions you take now will have consequences later, but that doesn’t mean one wrong choice will mess up the rest of your life. So many successful adults chose one career path in high school and university but ended up doing something completely different. In fact, universities now are being more flexible with students changing their classes. With this knowledge, all the decisions taken now will be under less pressure. Instead of trying to get it “right,” we can focus on learning and improving.
Third, we need to have a little more faith in ourselves. Another mistake a lot of us teenagers make is not considering certain options just because we feel they’re completely out of our reach. With all our insecurities, it’s sometimes hard to even consider some professions because we feel “it’s too hard to achieve” or we’re “just not smart enough.”
Just because you failed one test or received a bad grade in a class doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have what it takes. Instead of limiting ourselves because of our self-doubts, let’s push our boundaries, realize our craziest dreams, and reach our full potentials.
These were some of the things that have helped me feel less anxious when it comes to making decisions about my future. After these realizations, my future no longer seemed like a daunting obstacle in my life. And neither did those meetings with my guidance counselor.
Srishti Gummaraju is an international student pursuing high school studies in Kyiv. She is an avid reader, linguist, active student community member, interested in exploring new cultures, and hopes to pursue higher studies in communications and international relations.
