It's Our Turn: From one chapter to the next

Talk about it

As the countdown to graduation begins, I constantly think about becoming part of the “real world” as they call it. Which college will I attend? What will I major in? What legacy will I leave behind? Most importantly, what does my future have in store for me?

Senior year has its ups and downs. You have the advantage of finally being the oldest, up until freshman year of college and you’re right back at the bottom again.

You experience a handful of lasts: the last football game, the last final, the last prom and one last day of high school. But with those lasts come firsts: the first day of freshman year, my first college class, and the very first time I have to share a space with someone other than myself.

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, I catch myself daydreaming about all sorts of things. What will graduation day be like? How will I make the most of my last summer before college? Who will my college roommate be?

With the many joys of senior year also comes stress. I have to plan my graduation party and find time to take those dreaded senior pictures. Don’t get me started about college and scholarship applications; I would rather watch paint dry.

When I was young I was asked, “Megan, what do you want to be when you grow up?” to which I replied, “I want to be a teacher!” Since then I have changed my mind quite a few times.

As a young child, the possibilities are endless. You can be anything you dream to be – an astronaut, a teacher, a baseball player or even a princess.

As you reach your teenage years, it seems as though the pressure builds. By the time I reached high school, I felt like I needed to have it all figured out.

But there’s a catch.

I strongly believe you should find something you’re passionate about because then it really doesn’t seem like work at all. Taking into consideration the fact that these career path choices will steer my future in the upcoming years is a lot to take on.

Many kids are athletically blessed, musically inclined or natural-born artists. Quite frankly, I missed those branches on the talent tree, so to speak.

It was not until the end of my senior year that I realized God did give me a special talent; a branch to fall on, if you will.

That talent is writing.

I’ve fallen in love with writing and I believe this is what I am meant to do. This makes me feel much more secure going into college, knowing I have a career to pursue.

Now I may be one of the lucky ones, but many kids my age still haven’t the slightest idea of what they want to do for the rest of their lives.

It is completely OK.

There’s no rule book or law saying you need to have everything figured out by the time you graduate. My advice is to search for that passion, whatever it may be, and go for it.

After all, the sky is the limit.

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“It’s Our Turn” is a weekly column that rotates among members of the Echo Press editorial staff.

Tags: opinion, columns