I’m a senior this year, and one word I’ll never stop hearing is “college.” Actually, it’s the one word that every high school student will ever hear. It’s kind of hard having to choose what you want as a career by 18. You don’t necessarily have to enter college with a major, but you’ll eventually have to choose one; and not everyone is lucky enough to know exactly what they want to do by the end of senior year.

During quarantine, I started thinking “Do I really picture myself being a teacher in 20 years?” and my future went to the trash at that moment. I’ve spent so many years saying “I want to be a teacher,” but did I really want to be one?

I thought I had my future figured out because I knew what I wanted to do and all of the sudden, it was gone. After that, I started researching different careers. I think I switched career paths about fifty times. I became very frustrated and scared that I wouldn’t be able to find something I loved to do by the time I had to apply for college. However, no career interested me as much as education.

After contemplating for a while, I found my way back to teaching. I realized I don’t only want to do one thing for my entire life, no matter how much I enjoy it. There are millions of careers out there and I don’t want to limit myself to only one. I feel like I’m pushed to pursue only one career, but I have so many things I’m interested in. In this long life, I cannot imagine myself working in a school for the rest of my life. College will still be here in 20 years if I ever want to go back to pursue something else.

I may not have everything figured out, but I’m sure of what I don’t want.