What are you going to be when you grow up?
This is one of the most disliked questions for college senior who are graduating. When asked by friends, professors, family members, neighbors, great aunts, and 5th cousins, it’s easiest to come up with a stock answer to the question. Few of us know when finishing college what we want to be ‘when we grow up’.
Truth be told, though, the problem doesn’t end once the caps are tossed and the tassels have been turned. People question what they want to and should do with their lives throughout every stage. Regardless if you’re in school, a single professional, married, have kids, or are entrenched in a career, we all have doubts. This oftentimes leads us to a midlife (or quarter life!) crisis. However, I’m not convinced that we all have one thing that we’re going to be when we embark on our careers. Much has been noted about the trend of switching careers 7 or 8 times throughout one’s life. There’s nothing wrong with this as long as we’re doing good work and putting our skills to use in ways that are beneficial to society,
At the end of the day, you don’t have to know what you want to be when you grow up. You probably didn’t know when you were 7, 17, or 27, and you won’t like be able to define one specific profession for yourself if you live to be 97. Maybe it’s time to give ourselves some peace of mind by changing the assumption that we have to be something, one thing, when we finally grow up.
