What comes next?

From the minute we start school, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up.

Through high school, our answers start to carry a bit more weight as we come closer and closer to deciding what we are going to do with the rest of our lives.

However, it’s not until we get to university and we’re close to graduating that these decisions really come into play. I mean, what comes next?

I’ve always had difficulty answering people when they ask me what I want to do when I graduate university; for so long now, I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life in general.

It’s a tough decision, and you really have to put a lot of thought into it because, while you can certainly go back to school should you change your mind, it’s expensive to educate yourself. Many people don’t have the means to go back and get a second degree once they are done with the first, or rather people don’t want the added debt.

So what is it that you love? What     is it that you would want to do that wouldn’t feel like a job when you do it? Would you be happy waking up every morning to go to work?

There are so many things people need to take into consideration, and while some people may have had it figured out, I was not one of them.

I have such a variety of interests, so many things that I like or that I like to do that when it came time to deciding my career path and my post-grad plans, I always came up blank.I could go on to get a master’s of arts like both of my parents did, I could go further and get a Ph.D., or I could enter the job market immediately after graduating.

The competition for jobs now means that just entering the work force isn’t really a viable option and if you want to have a better chance of getting a particular job, higher education is sometimes the best way to go.

I’m not the best student, as I’m sure any of my professors and my parents would tell you, so going on to an MA (and possibly a Ph.D.) is not a good option for me.

After doing some research, I decided that I would go and get an advanced college diploma in journalism once I graduate from Laurier.      If writing for The Cord has shown me anything, and it’s given me more than I could have hoped for, it’s that I love writing for a newspaper and that I want to do this for the foreseeable future.

I love to travel; I’m never content being at home for too long and always insist on going out and having adventures on weekends, even if it’s just around Kitchener-Waterloo or the surrounding areas.

It’s always been part of my post-grad plans to travel and see the world, but to do that, I need to work, and to work, I need to go to school and get more education.

My head is basically a big mixing bowl of ideas and thoughts and dreams at the moment, further adding to my confusion of what I am going to do with my life following Laurier.

I think a lot of people are like me in the sense that they have all these grand plans for when they leave school. Everyone wants to see the world and get a job, everyone wants to be able to have the security in their work lives in order to be able to see the world, and I think everyone is just as mixed up as I am when it comes down to really making a decision on what comes after.

I may not have it completely figured out, but I have it figured out enough to know what the right path is for me without other people telling me how my life is going to go, or how I should live.

I’m going to do what’s right for me, and to hell with the rest. And I think everyone else should do the same.