Gear up for those post high school decisions

Jasen Williams Teen Columnist, The Friday Flyer

Jasen Williams
Teen Columnist, The Friday Flyer

People in general have a strange compulsion to ask difficult questions. What do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you want to go to school? What is your favorite subject? Which Disney movie is your favorite? What is your favorite color? Ah! I can barely decide what I want to eat for breakfast, much less what I want my life to entail.

Things get even more interesting when people ask for advice once you have picked.

For us teens, the next big life decision is what to do after high school. College or work? Community or university? Science or art? “Ratatouille” or “Bug’s Life?”

In my Boy Scout troop, there were two joking additions to the Ten Commandments: a) The dumb shall suffer, and b) There is no learning without pain – whether it’s your pain or another’s is up to you.

The first one teaches that the campout will hurt if you forget your sleeping bag; just as walking blindly into your work or college experience will get you stressed and unsatisfied.

The second explains that you don’t need to walk in blind because (surprise!) you are not the first one to grow up.

Since there is a whole business built off of “preparing you for college,” allow me to share a some actions that can benefit you.

First, ask questions back. As G.K. Chesterton says, “There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.” You can learn incredible amounts of life lesson from anyone, even if it is how not to act.

People think differently about growing up and life, and they would not think that way unless there was something good in it. So break out your friendly hat and ask experienced older mentors, anyone from college age onward, for how they would approach post-high school decisions, what they liked about theiA18-PIC-Teenr school, or how they chose their job.

Many are open to job shadowing or internships. I’d recommend asking more “how” questions because it is too easy to answer “what is your job?” With the “how” question, people are obligated to answer with more than a one-word answer. And believe it or not, most people LOVE to talk about themselves, how they do their job with their own special method, and how they think they could have done things better. Plus, they enjoy seeing a young teen taking a conscious hold of their future and being wise enough to seek counsel.

Next, use your energy and time wisely. College applications can take quite a while. Besides the detailed form-filling, there are typically two essays per school, even if they do accept the Common App.

For the workforce, identify the need and fill it. Sure, we’re all talented. Yet, much like our potential, even gold is wasted when it is unrefined and undeveloped. The largest application that people have recommended over and over to me is to keep learning with your eye on the prize, whatever that may be.

The third application for this tip is to disengage and go watch a movie or something. It seems so easy to simply keep working without taking a day off: there is stuff to be done! But it appears that part of using your time wisely is knowing when to restore energy, creativity and outlook on the project.

Which leads me to my third suggestion: be excited for the future while content with your present stage. “Senioritis” is a common short-timer’s attitude that negatively affects their mood during the last few months of senior year. It is my belief that this can occur as early as sophomore or even freshmen year. It is so sad!

Here we are in the beginnings of our prime, with no bills to pay, abundant opportunities to pursue our interests and adventures, and invaluable learning opportunities that are begging to be taken advantage of. And still, many of us are “soooo over high school” before we have even begun to sense high school’s potential.

In the same way, let’s be excited for our 20s! We will practically be inexhaustible, invincible and impatient for adventure and learning. Each stage has its own set of challenges, but as the good G.K. Chesterton says, “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” Life is what you make it.

In addition to all this talk of growing up, it’s easy to forget that we can play the same games with the same wonder and joy that we did when we were 5, but now with the same mentality as C.S. Lewis: “When I was 10, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am 50, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

So let us put away these childish fears and become adults, full of wonder, appreciation and readiness to better this world we have been given. Let’s stay strong as we face the armies of essays and opportunities that demand answers, knowing that the prize is ahead.

 




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