At all moments, the future is one
step ahead of us. People think about it at all times, they plan for it, prepare
for it, but what they do not notice is that they never actually live it. The
future is always ahead of us, ready to surprise us in all ways; while we are
stuck in the present, preparing for something that we will never actually
reach. This does not mean preparation for
the future is useless or unnecessary, it means the opposite actually. Planning
and preparing for the future is extremely necessary, since like said before, it
is ready to surprise us. I always thought we had to be entirely in control of
our lives, ready to take on anything that came to us. But the more I think about
what is to come, the more I notice how little control I have and how things
can, and probably will, happen differently than planned. This lack of control
over my future scares me at some points, but intrigues me as well.
The last couple of weeks, we have
been working on career orientation and personality testing with the school’s College
Counselor during our Academic Leadership classes. This gave us, as sophomores,
the capacity to understand possibilities as well as our interests, providing us
with a broader view when it comes to choosing our IB courses, and even our
college majors. These tests and analysis
of our personalities and interests we made using tests such as the Myer Briggs Typology Test, and we used pride experiences to create our Holland Code. Both
the Typology test and the Holland Code presented us with ideas of majors and professions that match our personality, in this way providing people who do not
know what they want to pursue, with inspirations.
While this testing can be a source of hope and
inspiration for those who do not know what they want to work with, it can be a
burden and a worry for other who do know.
In my case, it caused me to be uncertain, since I have a plan, I know what
I want to work it, but I kept on considering: What if my dream career does not match
my personality? What if it says I’m
supposed to be a lawyer, not a doctor? Those were the moments I finally stopped
and thought; who cares? These tests are meant to help me undo the knots inside
my mind and make my plans easier, they are meant to simplify my views, not
confuse me even more. One of my classmates even asked the counselor, Vanessa Benaci,
what would happen if they got a career they did not want to pursue, and she
answered saying that the test is only meant to give you ideas, match your personality
to known careers, not define your future. This made sense and calmed me; it
seemed to take a weight off my shoulders, a weight that should not even have
been there.
I have somehow ended up with the
idea of becoming a doctor, and putting my life towards helping others. I was
reluctant at first, a doctors life is not easy, but after talking to doctors
and hearing their side of the story, the phrase I heard the most was similar to:
If you feel it in your heart, its right for you, if you truly love it, do it.
This applies to all careers, because several times, high school students are afraid
of choosing a major or a career because they do not know if they will be good
at it. But that’s not what matters, what truly impacts your decision should be:
Do you love it? Because when it comes to being ‘good’ at your profession, what
will matter is if you love it and you enjoy working with whatever you chose, because
if you do, you will be more than just good, you will be great.
And now, my answers. You, reader,
might be wondering, so what? Did you get the career you wanted? I will admit
it, as much as I tried to calm myself, repeating in my mind it was fine it I
did not get doctor as one of the options, I could still be a great surgeon if I
truly loved it. As much as I told myself that, I was still nervous. But, as I
scrolled down the options, passing the various careers, including Marriage and
Family Counselor and Library Technician, I finally relaxed when scrolling past Pediatrician ,Surgeon and Psychiatrist. I feel quite hypocritical, saying that I does not
matter whether the result you get matches the result you want, but hopping that
I get the final result I dreamed of. Nevertheless, I do believe that if my
result was different, telling me to be a lawyer of a CEO, I would still dream
of being a doctor, taking other people’s lives into my hands and helping whoever
I was able to. This lesson in class really helped me, and I feel that by the
end of this course, my worries will have decreased greatly, because I can see
how every lesson, or group of lessons, is able to calm my mind about one thing
that worried me about the future. But, as I see my ideas clearing up and slowly
joining to create my future, I see my classmates struggle and worry more and
more about what’s to come, and after realizing that it does not matter if you
are naturally good at the career you choose or if it will bring you enough
money and fame, I know that what truly inspires me is this video we watched
several times during class, summing up to:
Choose what you love, because if you truly love it, it will bring you
what you need the most in life, happiness.
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