Credit to Drew Johnson and Chase Pray

“I don’t know.”
The simple phrase I always end up repeating after that dreaded “What are you doing after graduation?”question. Whether it’s a  well-intended counselor hoping I have my entire life planned out, a distant family member who didn’t even know my name five minutes ago, or a friend who has been updating their life plans every week since elementary school, the question always seems to come up.

From wanting to be a waiter at a 5-star restaurant to being a doctor, my ambitions have changed drastically over the years. I have never really known what I wanted to do post-graduation. Although our schools have attempted to prepare us for picking a lifestyle, I have never liked the idea of picking a career and sticking to it until retirement.

In the meantime, attempting to navigate through the experience of high school with busy schedules, hours of homework and after-school activities is tough enough. There simply is no time to plan out my future. My years of pushing off plans because “I have time” are coming to an end. We should not have to give up freedoms in our schedule simply to please others by making a plan for a career that we haven’t even chosen yet.

Society always teaches us that being able to do anything is a blessing. Maybe we have the freedom to choose, but choosing is also a burden. That question always seems to have strings attached. If I say police officer, I annoy half of my extended family. The same effect happens with wanting to be a journalist. I’m in a game of prancing around aunts and uncles that I talk to twice a year. Even with the short list of potential jobs I recycle, I still make up the majority of what I say. I haven’t thought about scholarships, internships, or by far the most terrifying, college visits which, in their eyes, leaves me behind the rest of students my age.

The problem is that most of us don’t have our post-graduation plans perfected. That all too familiar question might have an easy answer for some, but for others, like myself, it throws us two steps behind in the plans we have made. Why don’t I have my life planned out? The unrealistic standard of turning your tassel and being able to follow the step-by-step Google Slideshow presentation of your life goals that you made in sixth grade is not something that should be added to the already stressful life of a student.