“What are you going to do now”? That question was repeated over and over at Nevin’s graduation party. My perception was that Nevin didn’t have a clue. How could he? He is starting the next stage of his life with a clean slate. He needs to learn what is available to him.
Then, a couple days later, I heard Dustin Hoffman, the actor, talk about his life. He got into the subject of transitioning into the work environment at age 18. His reflections were insightful.
First, how could you expect a young person graduating from high school to know what they want to do for the rest of their life? The sum total of your “being” is growing up with painful social encounters and education. From age 5-18 you are constantly going to school to get a base of knowledge. That’s it! At 18 you graduate from high school and the world says “now what”?
Some people seem to know what they want to do. I think some of the conviction comes from watching your parents. If your dad is a dentist, maybe you will have a propensity to choose dentistry as a vocation. Maybe your neighbor is a policeman and somehow you become enamored with the occupation. Most people have no clue.
Second, Dustin said “what a great time”! You get to try different things and experiment with different occupations. It is an opportunity. It is a time to learn about the possibilities of earning a living. The idea is to go from bewilderment to experimentation. Trial and error is good!
If you go on to college, take “general” curriculum subjects. You’ll find subjects that you like and that might lead you to a promising career. It is also a world of academia and a lot of discussion takes place about potential careers. For example, I started out taking subjects that would allow me to teach math. I found I didn’t have the patience to teach little bastards math (and it didn’t pay anything) so I switched to engineering. Building and designing new things caught my fancy. After graduating as an engineer, I went after a business degree. So I was adjusting again. Then I found out business really needed “problem solvers” and I ended up in executive management. So, as a person I kept adjusting always leaning to something that was more interesting. I did not have a revelation when I was 18 about what I wanted to pursue.
You can all relate back to your experience after you finished high school. Kelly seemed to know with laser accuracy what she wanted and Paul resorted to trial and error to find his niche. Margaret needed a year in Sweden to gain clarity. Chris seemed to migrate towards heavy equipment and mechanical things. Debs made a choice of optical dispensing and then adjusted into management.
So Grasshoppers, as your kids blast off into the world after graduating high school (this assumes they finish high school), encourage them to try something. Try anything! If they don’t like college, they can adjust. Experiment. Move towards the things that are interesting. It seems scary but it can actually be rewarding. Their slate will be written with a wonderous journey.
Just a final note. The Andrews clan has not been very good at occupations that require physical exertion. We are better at telling other people what to do. Ha.
Love, Dad