I started off with princess. In my heart and mind, I wanted to be a princess when I grew up. That was going to be my career somehow. To me, the possibility became even greater once I saw a princess with glasses. I’ve always worn glasses and identified with every picture I saw. Every book, movie, birthday theme, and conversation was about the same thing. It was hard to let go. I don't want to say how old I was at the time, but I secretly wore dresses all the time for a while because I was still passionate about the idea. Then I grew up and decided that I wanted to be a teacher. In my heart and mind, I wanted to be a teacher. Then I wanted to be a business owner. In my heart and mind, I wanted to be a businesswoman. Then I wanted to be a lawyer. Each time, I was so convinced in my heart and mind. Each field was my future, which led to confusion after realizing that I had decided on something else. I felt much better once I found out that my friends, and their friends were going through the same doubts as I was. Nevertheless, I was still unsure what my future would bring. I realize one thing as a look back at my evolution and potential destiny. We all change, constantly!
All of these thoughts began a few months ago when my teacher asked us to think back to what we were like in middle school. I am now starting my senior year in high school. I kept thinking over and over, I am so, so different. Everything about me is different. Then, it hit me! I could take a thousand different career paths that come along with a thousand different interests, and I’m supposed to choice one? Just one? That's hard. No thank you! I thought that the project was about having sure answers to so many hard questions and figuring out what my future would look like as far as future career. For a while I was freaking out, but I decided to talk to my teacher. I felt so much better because she said that I didn't have to have definite answers and that I didn't have know what my distant future would look like. Then I told her about the whole princess thing, along with all the other options that all ended being not so permanent. She said that all of that doubt happens because we’re growing up and experiencing so many different things. Its natural, she said. I was so relieved.
Then she gave me the best advice. She made me write down three things because she knows I’m a visual type of person. First, she said, keep learning, keep asking questions, and definitely keep reading about my interests and curiosities. There will be many interests and they may change, but the ones that stay the longest and the ones that I spend my time thinking about the most usually mean something. Two, she said that I should focus on getting top grades because no matter where I go, high grades would mean that I would be ready no matter which path I take. Also, better than average grades would help me get into better universities. And she emphasized that AP classes are a must! And three, she said that I should focus on my near future, like thinking about where I see myself going to college, how and when I need to fill out college applications, who will help me, and what major I would be choosing. She mentioned that many freshmen in college are still not sure about their long-term career paths, but being there is the only way to figure it out along the way. Not being sure was not a reason for not going! She said that talking about all of this helps. Everything is a bit exciting and scary at the same time, but she said that all of that is normal. I look forward to figuring out what I want to be. Not knowing my future is not so hard and not so stressful anymore. I’m not going to be a princess, but I’ve figured that if I do things right I can still live a fairytale life.