A couple years ago I went to my niece's high school graduation. One of the speakers said something that really stuck with me. I don't remember exactly what was said but it was basically that there were tons of adults in the crowd at the graduation that wished they could go back and be where these teenagers were. With their whole lives ahead of them. He told them to find what makes them happy and go for it. Don't have regrets.
I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think its really unrealistic to expect teenagers to go off to college and make such a big decision as to what they are going to do with the rest of their lives so that they can study it in college. I also understand that a lot of times if you wait to go to college, it just gets harder to eventually be able to go back. Life gets in the way.
So when I was in high school, I joined a program called Post Secondary Education in which I was able to attend classes at a local college. During my junior year, I took half my classes at the high school and half my classes at the college. My senior year, I didn't even attend high school at all. All my classes were at the college. Since I was never at the high school it never occurred to me to do the normal things seniors do. Like taking the ACT or SAT and applying to colleges. I remember at the end of my senior year, I realized I didn't really know what I wanted to do and I kind of panicked. So I just decided to stay at the 2-year college I was already at.
I changed my major so many times. From Early Childhood Education to Court Reporting to Legal Assisting. Then a class I needed was only offered in the Spring so I had a semester to fill up. I added some extra classes and ended up graduating with two Associate Degrees: Legal Assisting and Administrative Information Technologies. I have never used the legal assisting degree and at this point probably never will.
Once I was about to graduate, I realized I really didn't mind school anymore. I hated high school but college was kind of fun. So I did an online program that allowed me to take half my classes at a local college and half my classes online to graduate with a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. How did I decide I wanted to go into Business? It was the program that accepted the most of my credits.
That's how I chose what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Whatever accepted the most of my credits.
It was at this graduation that I saw graduate students getting their hoods put on their shoulders. I wanted that. I wanted to have that hood put on my shoulders. So what did I decide to study? Business, of course! I'd already gone so far, why not continue? By the time I was 23 I had an MBA, not that my job requires it. But it still amazes me that I actually worked that hard and got it.
Years later, I thought about going back to school. I wasn't happy in my job and I started researching different types of degrees. If I had it to do over again, I would want to get my degree in Speech Language Pathology. And maybe some day I'll go back and do that. But right now I've got two little girls to raise, a full time job and my husband keeping me busy. Plus I was told I wasn't allowed to go back to school because my family is sick of going to graduations!
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