What are students pursuing these days?

What+are+students+pursuing+these+days%3F

Andrea Rodriguez

As soon as we start high school we wonder what should we do when we graduate? What’s our next step that would change our lives?  And it eats away at our heads because we are unsure, and on top of that, we feel a lot of pressure either from our parents, family friends, teachers, or even us. 

We struggle in choosing whether we should go for a career we love and feel passionate about or one that would make us economically successful.  Everyone has their doubts when it comes to this big question for instance a student from Waltham High says, ‘’I don’t want to start despising a career I always had a passion for because of the salary I would get.’’ It is hard to take a risk on a career, as it has its pros and cons. Do we actually want to hate our jobs and be economically wealthy, or do we want to work on something that would make us happy and have a fulfilling life? We are in between success materialism vs happiness materialism.

To help us answer this question, we gather students’ choices about their career paths. As one student’s choice to follow computer science since he says, ‘’it’s one of the best-paying careers out there right now and it kinda seems interesting to learn about’’ compared to another student who wants to be a barber because ‘’barbering has really been in my family forever so picking up the skills is pretty easy since I spent time with my dad learning them and it was one of the best memories I have with him.’’ 

These students have completely different career paths, which is totally normal there are no standards when it comes to what you want to do, but also there is doubt among students choosing their careers. As a junior in high school would say ‘’ I still do not know what to do, my dad keeps asking and I feel pressure constantly reminding me that I only have 1 year left to decide but I feel like in the end, I would know what I want to do, or I would just pick something’’ This is really common among teen it is a very difficult and stressful question in life to know what you want to pursue for the rest of your life. You might think you want to stick with one career you try it out and then you have the possibility of realizing that you don’t enjoy it as much as you thought you would, yet is a good life learning experience.

Whether you choose to go for a career that would provide you economic wealth or one that would promote self-fulfillment, there is no wrong answer to the ‘’why’’ you want to pursue this particular vocation:  the only thing we should have in mind is to do it for ourselves. Don’t let the opinions or expectations of others sway your decision. We know that we all have someone who tells us what we should do, but ultimately, your career choice is solely yours. Pick your path based on your interest whether from a materialistic motivation or not, is one of the life-changing decisions that YOU have to make, so don’t let anyone take that away from you.