Since I was about four years old my parents have been trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my life. Every time anything has sparked my interest they have recommended a future career path for me. This has been partially helpful over the years because it has helped me realize a lot of career paths I don’t believe are the right fit for me. It has also given me a need to always think of future careers that might work out for me, but so far I’ve been extremely picky.

Six years old: Geologist

Six years old is around the age where most kids start exploring. On my little adventures I used to pick up rocks. I’m pretty sure this is a pretty normal thing for young kids, but picking up random crystal-looking rocks led my parents to believe I was going to be a geologist. My dad used to tell me all the time, “geologists find the oil and get rich,” but I soon grew to dislike the dirt that came with the rocks and lost interest. Rocks got really boring, really fast, which meant all the geology kits my parents and grandparents gave me went to waste.

10 years old: Veterinarian

The next career I thought was perfect for me was being a veterinarian. My parents actually didn’t feed into this idea. Mainly because my thought process behind wanting this job was very flawed. I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian because I loved my pets, but after meeting my friends’ pets I realized that all animals are different, and animals also smell pretty bad. Also, after my parents told me that I would have to deal with sick and dying animals I decided that that would be way too depressing of a job for me.

12-15 years old: Pharmacist

Out of all of the jobs I was convinced I was going to pursue, I was set on the idea of being a pharmacist for the longest. The second my dad told me that pharmacists made a lot of money and had flexible hours my mind was set. That was until my sophomore year of high school, when I took chemistry. I was humbled very quickly to say the least, and that class led to one too many mental breakdowns for me to want to pursue a career involving chemistry. The idea seemed ideal, I just don’t think I can go through another chemistry class sadly.

15 years old: Journalist

The same year I was being humbled by chemistry I came across a new idea for my future career. I joined journalism at Chamblee, the same Blue & Gold I’m currently writing for. Joining the class was the highlight of my sophomore year. I loved the concept of knowing what was going on around our school and going out and interviewing people. Sadly, I realized this wasn’t a suitable career for me because I soon realized that writing articles isn’t my best talent. Yes, I can do it, just not as well as others in the class. This made me realize how competitive of a field of work journalism was. I still love the class, but being in the class has made me realize that it’s not the career for me, due to my mediocrity.

16 years old: Accountant

My parents’ most recent career idea for me was accounting. Solely based on the fact that I want to be rich, but so do most people. Math is another thing that isn’t my strong suit, but my dad convinced me it was only the basics (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) which sounded easy enough for me, so I was set on the idea for a few months. As I have thought of the idea of sitting at a desk crunching numbers, accounting started to sound less ideal. I want money but I also don’t want to spend years sitting at a desk doing math.

Reflecting on all the jobs I know I don’t want to pursue still leaves so many careers I’m unsure of. It has also led me to realize I’ve only been alive for 16 years. How am I supposed to decide what I want to do for 30-50 years at such a young age? In conclusion, I still have a lot of time to figure out what I want to do with my life and to people who already have that figured out, just know, I’m extremely jealous.