Once you hit junior year (maybe even sooner if you are one of the unfortunate ones) the comments start:

“Where are you going to college?”

“What are you going to be when you grow up?”

“You should go to (insert random university).”

“I think that you would make a great (insert random profession).”

Suddenly parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, your neighbor, the dentist and the mailman all have opinions on what you should do with your life and how you should do it. You are expected to make a choice. A choice that will shape your future forever and all you can do is ask yourself how you grew up so fast.

In the eyes of a high schooler, the future is a very scary thing. One of the main culprits of this view is the sudden switch many students experience from being treated like a child, to being expected to make decisions as an adult.

As 16 and 17 year-olds, there are many choices that we are barred from making for ourselves. For example I cannot get a tattoo or open up a bank account. I cannot even buy a lottery ticket. But yet I am expected to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life. Makes sense, right? The culture surrounding the future is something that is not focused on enough; while many high schoolers are focused on the future, their future looks more like making it to the end of the week and passing classes, not making life shaping decisions. One of the largest reasons behind this is because at the core of it, we are not prepared.

Over 75% of students switch their majors when the get to college and a third of students transfer colleges before they graduate. The turnover rate is surprising and seems to point out a flaw in our education system. If more importance was placed on figuring out what our future looks like before junior year, everyone’s life would be easier.

High schoolers are so used to being treated like children that when the switch happens the stress is too much to take. Forcing the gut response of avoiding the future altogether.  If I had a dollar for every time someone told me “Don’t worry, you have time” when I responded “I don’t know” to their questions, I could maybe pay for college. The truth is that we do not have as much time as we think. It is time for the world to stop treating us all like children and understand that if I can decide what I want my profession to be at the age of 17, a simple lottery ticket won’t hurt me.

Sources:

http://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Third-of-Students-Transfer/130954

https://dus.psu.edu/mentor/2013/06/disconnect-choosing-major/