You're jsut out of high school, or maybe starting college, or even getting close to finishing college. Right at the cusp; 18, 19, maybe your early 20s.
That's a really scary age.
All of a sudden you're trying to define your life. You're starting to realize your choices affect your future. People are starting to ask you what your plan is. When they do, remember that those people asking about your "plan" are projecting their own feelings of what they should have done at your age onto you because chances are they didn't know what they were doing at that age either.
One of the common problems is so many people think they need to find their "calling". Like there is one particular thing they'll find that will be heralded by the trumpets of angels and they will suddenly have complete clarity of purpose. They focus so much on this myth that tthey miss opportunity after opportunity becasue each one doesn't quite fit their romantic notion of how their life is going to play out. Their tunnel vision blinds them to possibilities and they end up old and filled with regret, incorrectly thinking that things would have been different if they had a plan.
Life is an interesting adventure where we get to run around doing and learning new things on a really neat planet for a while before we turn back into dirt. Keep your mind open to whatever opportunities present themselves and be willing to work for them. It doesn't have to light your soul on fire, but the very act of working hard to succeed at anything will make you confident, happy, and better able to take advantage of other opportunities in the future.
You probably won't get a career related to what you study as an undergraduate. You probably won't have the same career at forty that you had at twenty-five. The only thing you're developing right now that will really determine your future is your work ethic and your character, and even then you have your whole life to develop that.
One piece of specific advice I wish someone had told me: apply for internships. Seriously. The worst thing that happens is that you spend a short period of time doing something that you don't like for twenty hours a week. The best thing that happens is that you find something that inspires you and have a much better chance of landing a job in the field (or with the company) after college. Either way, you get valuable experience and a better understanding of what you like to do.
Just be willing to work hard at whatever comes your way, focus on doing what is in front of you well, and everything will work out.
That's a really scary age.
All of a sudden you're trying to define your life. You're starting to realize your choices affect your future. People are starting to ask you what your plan is. When they do, remember that those people asking about your "plan" are projecting their own feelings of what they should have done at your age onto you because chances are they didn't know what they were doing at that age either.
One of the common problems is so many people think they need to find their "calling". Like there is one particular thing they'll find that will be heralded by the trumpets of angels and they will suddenly have complete clarity of purpose. They focus so much on this myth that tthey miss opportunity after opportunity becasue each one doesn't quite fit their romantic notion of how their life is going to play out. Their tunnel vision blinds them to possibilities and they end up old and filled with regret, incorrectly thinking that things would have been different if they had a plan.
Life is an interesting adventure where we get to run around doing and learning new things on a really neat planet for a while before we turn back into dirt. Keep your mind open to whatever opportunities present themselves and be willing to work for them. It doesn't have to light your soul on fire, but the very act of working hard to succeed at anything will make you confident, happy, and better able to take advantage of other opportunities in the future.
You probably won't get a career related to what you study as an undergraduate. You probably won't have the same career at forty that you had at twenty-five. The only thing you're developing right now that will really determine your future is your work ethic and your character, and even then you have your whole life to develop that.
One piece of specific advice I wish someone had told me: apply for internships. Seriously. The worst thing that happens is that you spend a short period of time doing something that you don't like for twenty hours a week. The best thing that happens is that you find something that inspires you and have a much better chance of landing a job in the field (or with the company) after college. Either way, you get valuable experience and a better understanding of what you like to do.
Just be willing to work hard at whatever comes your way, focus on doing what is in front of you well, and everything will work out.
No comments:
Post a Comment