Where to after high school?

Contributed by: Tamika Kong, 15

One of the most stressful questions to most teens along with; what are your goals for the future? Or have you started looking for outside courses you can take? Some of us know what it is and have started planned ten feet ahead, while the rest of us are pacing in the background. At one point I asked my parents to tell me what to do, give me a goal so I can start planning now. I know crazy! Most teenagers are begging their parents to let them have the freedom of choice, while I'm pleading for them to put the leash back on and drag me to the finish line.
It's true that high school is the end of an era and the first step into the real world, where if you don't get the work done you don't get a detention, you get fired. Though your parents probably aren't lying when they say high school is easy compared to what comes after. High school plays a big part in where well be and who we'll be as a working adult. That's why the school we choose to go to is important, because our surroundings do affect our way of thinking. As teenagers we are still trying to figure out who we are, so figuring out what we want to be once we get out feels almost impossible. Our ideas and actions change as we grow. It all starts at home.
You'd be surprised by how much your parents can help you, have a talk to them because they have probably been exactly where you are. My dad told me that I have to choose something that I love. You won't have a real idea of career you want until you find who you are and what you love. By allowing society and others dictate who we are we are giving away our freedom of choice. Once our time in high school is done we see it as the most carefree time it really is, when having your friend tell the guy you liked how you really felt, was the end of the world. We have to get things in perspective and see those tiny things for what they really are, nothing. We worry about small things that distract us from the big picture. High school is just period we have to go through to get to where we really need to be. As we grow so will our way of thinking of things.
Sort out what's important and what's not, and concentrate on the bigger picture. Once we take away the little things, the can get a wider vision into ourselves and see what it is that makes us happy. To get the career we want we put in the extra work. We do extra-curriculum, we do the extra research and we go that extra ten step. We set the goals that are relevant to what we want to accomplish. Though this may seem hard it will be worth it in the long run.
In conclusion, high school is important but it is only the first step in this race to success in the real world. It may seem hard to choose what we want to do next but we have time on our side. Parents are there to guide us not to drag us to where they think we should be. By talking to them we can learn a lot more about what we are capable of.