My daughter is currently a senior in high school. As her final year of school has progressed, she's been faced with an increase in questions about what she wants to do with the rest of her life to which she has no answer.
At the age of seventeen, she is under more and more pressure from other family members to go to college or have some sort of grand plan. What teenager knows what they want to do with the rest of their lives? I'm in my mid forties and have no idea what I'm doing. And I'm probably not the right person to ask about any of this since I just freaked out and quit my job of twenty some years.
In all of her classes and the general conversation around the lunch table, the question that always pops up for her is “What are you going to do next?” and the questioning is starting to wear her down. My advice to her has been mostly along the lines of her being in a position where she doesn't need to make a hasty decision because everyone is pushing one way or the other. She has plenty of time in her life to make a bad decision so she can take her time with it.
Society pushes our youth into making these decisions that will most likely end up with them generating a massive pile of debt and then washing out after a few years because they picked the wrong field of interest. Ever since the 1980s, every generation has been all told that if we wanted to somehow succeed in life we needed to go to college. Coincidently, that was around the same time that the Reagan administration cut federal funding for public colleges and tuitions started to rise exponentially. With escalating costs and less aid available, taking out loans became the main method of obtaining this higher education that we were all told was necessary so the banks took advantage of this collapsing system much like they did with the housing markets.
College students are now being blamed for not taking courses that will land them into a profitable job opportunity. I think the world already has enough hedge fund douches and tech bros. The arts have value. The humanities have value. They are the things that add depth and meaning to our daily lives. New generations of people need to learn and further contribute to the arts and humanities so they can be passed on to those that follow. The people that take on this work don't deserve to be destitute for preserving and continuing the work of humanity.
A lot of people that don't have a financial path to furthering their education end up join the military for the false promises of the GI Bill. Recruiters will lie through their teeth and tell kids anything to get them to sign their lives away to “fight for our freedom.” The only threat to our freedom is coming from within our own borders so military recruiters should really be asking what corporation do these kids want to go off and die for? Capitalism needs bodies to go out and gather natural resources by force under the guise of “spreading Democracy.”
I did give the kid permission to be as rude as she wants to any military recruiters that contact her. We did submit the information opt out form to school to keep her off of the military's mailing/call list but history has shown that the U.S. military doesn't really care about following rules or not showing up where they're not wanted.
So far, she's looking into volunteering at different charities like food banks or soup kitchens in order to gain some experience out in the world and to try to help people that need it. Once she gets some time helping others under her belt she hopes that will aid her in taking her next steps.
I do try to reinforce that whatever she ends up deciding to do with herself that the decision is not permanent. She has more than enough time in her life to change course and try something else. I really don't want her to find herself in a dead end office job with twenty years of her life stolen away from her and feeling like it was all done for nothing.
