Wavering Certainty

Ever since I realized what a job was, I've always wanted to be an engineer. With my natural want to build things out of my toys as a kid coupled with my fascination for the structures and vehicles in the modern world, specifically airplanes, it seemed like a very effective fit for me (also my massive amount of sarcasm, but that's a different story). However, recently I've been experiencing a certain expansion of my interests. Several of my friends have started telling me I wouldn't just be a good engineer but also a good psychologist, data analyst, public relations worker, public speaker, and even short story writer. While I think I still want to be an aerospace engineer, I can't help but agree with my friends when they tell me these things. I know I'm good with talking to a group of people on a podium without becoming a river, talk constantly about the abstracts of the human mind, love helping my friends with the problems they feel emotionally and mentally, and can explain a random jumble of numbers that no-one bats an eye to and give it meaning so that everyone looks at them. I also know that in each of these jobs I could benefit the human race just as much as I would be able to as an aerospace engineer, if not greater. This then has begun to pose a question that I've only just recently begun to ponder in my spare time: should I change my career plans and study something else in college? Currently, I think I'd be a better aerospace engineer than anything else. However, this doesn't mean my interest in the other fields is completely destroyed. I'm still going to keep getting up in front of crowds and talking my head off, discussing emotional and mental problems while theorizing about the brain's complex functions with my friends, and looking over and giving a meaning to statistics that I find in news articles. I would love it if I could find a way to explore all of these career options at once but, unfortunately, I would probably be overworked in the end, and then nothing would get done.

Transitioning Conundrum

There are many things in life that cannot be fully taught and have to be experienced by a person to know everything about them. This is true with things like having friends abandon a person, dealing with a divorce, and having to run suicide sprints at a soccer practice. Sure, you can learn things about these subjects and gain a base knowledge of what typically happens, but until a person experiences them all they will have is just that base knowledge and nothing of the true feelings that come forth in those situations when they are experienced. One experience, however, is the one that every high school senior dreads: the great transition from grade school into their early adult lives.

The reason for the concern is actually quite simple: the majority have no idea what’s next for them. Sure, there’s college, but college is the equivalent of another world for a group of people who have been together since high school. While moving up the ranks in grade school, it’s not nearly as daunting as it could be since a person has the knowledge that they’ll be in the (relative) same place, not be far from their childhood home, and have confirmed friends on the first day. The transition to college, however, completely dumps all of these out the window. Friends are more than likely going to different colleges in different areas of the nation and even the world that will most likely be miles away from their parent’s home.

This is why the transition to college is daunting, but if a person were to choose not to go to college I can only imagine how daunting it is for them. Without a higher education than a high school diploma, how will they provide for themselves and get what they’ve always wanted without having to work at a job they don’t like? Are they really confident they don’t want to deal with a couple years more of school and have a confirmed relatively well-paying job?

While both of these lists go on, the overall reason it’s so daunting transitioning from one chapter of life to the other is because of the drastic change that can be unpredictable to some and only overpredicted to others. All I wish is that, no matter what path we all choose, we all have fun and enjoy life no matter what, even if we have more research assignments or more checks to balance.