When I Grow Up...

I'm stealing this idea from 'Office Space', but it is actually a good point.

What would you do if you had a milion dollars? Would you write? Would you sing? Would you teach?
Do what you want to do without thinking about the money, that's what's going to make you happy.


Or, you can learn from me... I spent an unbelievable amount of money going to Culinary school because... well I don't even know why anymore, to tell you the honest truth. Don't get me wrong, I like cooking... It's just not something I should have picked for a life career. Years later I'm sitting in a job that (most days, granted I do have good times) I don't like, making not nearly enough to pay for the overwhelming amount of loans I'm paying off.


basically, don't do anything on a whim, because you feel like your life should be moving forward faster than it is. I don't know if this was helpful at all, but do what you love, and you'll (hopefully ) be happy!

If you look at which subjects you enjoy in school and which ones you don't really like as much, that should at least point you in the right general direction. For example, if you really hate math, you probably shouldn't be an engineer, etc.

Also, it's always good to have backup plans. For example, when I was younger I really wanted to be a baseball player, then I got older and realized that I'm not actually good at baseball.

Lastly, if there's ways you can gain some exposure to something you might be interested in before you make the committment to it, that would be a really good idea. For example, if you were interested in medical school it would be a good idea to volunteer at a hospital and see how you like it.

Hope this helps!

If you apply to anything at college I reckon you'd straight away get experience. If you did history you'd write about history, if you did design, you'd design stuff. What I'm saying is you wouldn't do 10 years on a course then suddenly think 'Oh I hate this!'- you'd work it out in the first year, if not month.

I'm too young to be making this decisions but I know someone who went from business school, to floristry and hung about in limbo for a year before deciding she loved being a nurse. Now she's happy as a clam

Basically, you'll find what you want to do, even if it takes a little time. If you try to find something to love you will. It's the trying that trips most people up.

Do ye have any "umbrella" typed courses? Here, people who don't know what they want to do after college often do a liberal arts degree, where you basically pick four subjects to study in 1st year, then continue on with two of them. What you are qualified for depends on what subjects you choose and a lot of jobs have graduate entry options anyway, where you can do maybe a year long or two year post-graduate course that will qualify you for the job you choose.

It's not often that you have to make the choice between remaining in a job you actually hate and starting all over again. Most courses qualify you for more than one thing or at least allow you more than one option. Like if you did a law degree and found you hated being a lawyer or solicitor or whatever, you could probably get a job in a company as a legal advisor or something. Or even a job in a company that wasn't directly legal related, because they might be pleased to have a legal expert on their staff. If you qualified as a brain surgeon and hated doing surgery, you could probably still be a G.P. or transfer to some other kind of medicine. You might need to go back to college in order transfer, but it'd probably only be a year or two and at that stage you would have been working a couple of years and would have money saved, so you might not need to borrow.

Or you could do something like lecture future brain surgeons or research medical conditions that require brain surgery or something.

Also, as Siriusly3 says, you might well figure out that you dislike what you are doing in your first year of college. I don't know where you are from or how easy it is to transfer courses. Here, you have to drop out of the course you are doing and then you have to pay for the first year (or however many years you've already done) of the new course, as the Government will only pay for people to do each year level once (well, it's different if you go back as a mature student or something, but let's keep things simple). And I know in some countries, it is easier to transfer and you don't even have to drop out of one course. You can just change your major or whatever.

I know people who went back to college in their 30s or even their 50s. Yeah, ten years before retirement age and they decide to change careers, but ten years is a long time in a job you aren't happy in and giving up one year to do an extra course isn't all that big a deal.

I'm going to give you, hopefully, a good piece of advice. Go to college as soon as you graduate from school and go for two years and get your general education degree. Then that gives you two years to figure out more about yourself and what will make you happy.

My first college expirence was great. I moved hour and half from home and got my own apartment and made my own money (I didn't live in dorms, but they are a great option.) I was going to a two year program that I thought I would spend the rest of my life doing. I went to Culinary School. I love cooking and I'm good at it so I would love it, right? Wrong, Culinary school was the worst decision I ever made. Though I am a chef (hence Megthechef) I still love cooking and it helps me relax it is totally different in the industry. If you think Hell's Kitchen is an over exaggeration then you have never been in a real kitchen. The chef I worked under tried her hardest to make the women cry so to "toughen" us up. My professor picked on the woman because "they only belong in the home kitchen". I'm not saying this to scare you but that is how it works in the culinary world. To top it off there is no money in becoming a professional chef. Really, there are a few exception but for the most part kitchen staff are in the lowest paid industry.

Now, I graduated and then moved back to my home town and started college again. I spent another semester starting the pre-req's for nurse and decided (after a long chat with my bestie who is a nurse) that the nursing world wasn't for me. Ok so now I'm up to 5 semester (money) wasted.

So I have decided I want to become a writer. (Which is still my dream and I would like to continue schooling in that but life got in the way.) So I spent another semester in all literary class (my fav semester so far) but then I realized that I really need to get my general edu degree to get my bachelor's in a literary major. So now I have taken the last two semesters focusing on taking my general education trying to get my general edu degree and I still have a semester and a half left. (So basic two) to get to a point where I can finally specailize in what I want to really do. So, moral of the story is that trying to make up your mind too quickly can make you waste 5 years of your life.

The best thing you can do is move away from home and meet some new people and get a feel of who you really are before deciding. Take two years to lay the ground work for what you really want to do. It is ok to not know how you want to spend the rest of your life. you are only 18 and will live a lot long take some more time to know what truly makes you happy. Above don't try to please anyone but yourself.

Sorry for rambling but this topic gets me going because I've made such horrible mistakes concerning my education.

Just want to reiterate what everyone has mentioned about not putting unnecessary pressure on yourself to figure it all out. I went into university without a real idea of what I wanted out of it, thinking I would major in English. Well, I got to university and realized that English wasn't really my cup of tea, and that I liked history better. I ended up studying medieval history, of all things, which I had never been interested in before university classes. Then, I thought I wanted to be a history professor. I'm now finishing up my Master's degree in history, but I decided against being a professor, and now I'm planning to take the year off and work next year, and then probably get a teaching certification, unless I find something else in my year off that seems more interesting. So, long story short: I've been through college/university, and I still don't know what I'm going to do. But I think it'll be okay.

A lot of people I met in university ended up choosing the subject they did (sometimes switching from their initial choice) because of a certain professor or class, so the same might happen to you. It's not unusual in general for people to change their minds at some point. If you start into something you don't end up loving, it's okay; you'd be far from the first person who found themselves in that situation.

Oh Ever - just think of the possibilities!

Without re-illiterating what everyone has been saying, you don't have to know right now. Go to college and get some qualifications (I'm not 100% sure how it works in the US) then you really have no limits - noone can turn you down for lack of qualifications!

I had no idea what I wanted to do in the slightest - I'd actually applied to do business studies - it's what my parents do and felt like I should be doing it too.

Then, just as I was about to send off my options form - I realised. I've never picked up a business book in my life, I hate talking about the economy and I nearly killed myself with boredom when I did some work experience.

I just focussed on what I did in my spare time. I write - when I'm upset or annoyed, it's just what I do. So I got rid of all my business options, chose creative writing optiosn instead... and told my parents I was going to be a novelist.

It may sound far-fetched, but someones got to do it, right?

Don't let the fear of failing stop you - I know too many people who went down the safe option and have regrets. Sure, the likelihood is that you're not going to become a number 1 chart topping singer - but it's not impossible. You don't know what might happen if you go down that path - you might find a liking for being a songwriter, you might meet someone who you go travelling with and find out that your real life now lies as a fish spotter in the ocean.

There is really no limit - don't panic and just see where it takes you!

^Wow - that was slightly corny, but still, the message is amongst all that somewhere

just saw all these comments! wow! to sum it all up, I think what I need to do now is clear: chill the flip out;P obviously I need to get some college time under my belt before I ping. Thanks for all the wonderful advice!