Will I Learn to Scuba Dive

Class of 2023, Are you having a good time yet? I know I sure am. I would like to start off by saying that I don’t really know any of you. It’s probably a bit late to do that now. So disregard anything I say that you disagree with because I’m gonna say it either way. But guess what it won’t matter in a few weeks when many of us will go separate ways and never see each other again or avoid each other when we do…none of us would everrrr do that though. 

Over the past three years I’ve learned quite a few things. One thing I never learned was what I wanted to do when I left. It used to bother me a lot that everyone else was figuring it out and beginning to work towards their dreams but it doesn’t anymore because I know I’ll figure it out in my own time. Although sometimes I fear I’ll end up stuck at my job at Shaws for the rest of my life, I know that Shaws is just my short term plan not my forever plan. I just want to say that it’s okay to not know right now because there are so many people in the same boat as you and sometimes it just takes a bit of time to figure out what the best path to take is. One thing I know for sure is that I do not want to be standing behind a cash register for the rest of my life scanning endless items and telling customers that they need to clip the coupon in order to use the coupon. The annoying beep of the register is like the flatline sound that can sometimes be heard in a hospital. If that’s something you want, that’s great, be the best cashier around or don’t in the end it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you listen to yourself and do what makes you happy as long as it’s safe and legal.

So many people have asked me “Oh what are you doing after High School?” and my answer almost every time is that I’m not sure or I’m still figuring it out. It’s very tempting to one day reply with something so out of pocket that maybe they won’t ask me again. The next time they ask I could easily say something crazy like a scuba diving doordash delivery person or a lego sculpture creator. The perfect job for me obviously.  Although now that I think about it, legos are really fun… Not sure lego sculpture creator would pay the bills though. Maybe the scuba diving gig would work though… I’d need to learn to scuba dive and learn how not to get the deliveries wet… silly problems that are definitely easy fixes. Okay, I might wanna move on from that idea.

College isn’t for everyone and I’m not saying it’s not worth a shot but some people just wanna scuba dive and deliver and  I can’t judge them for that because they know themselves more than I know myself and that’s pretty darn cool. What I think I’m trying to say is that we have our whole lives ahead of us and many of us will change our paths a few times before we find the perfect career that fits like a glove. A really good glove that makes you happy to wake up in the morning. Sometimes you just need to try on a few different pairs to find the right fit and it’s okay to grow out of a pair of formerly fitting gloves. As we get older we grow through the events in our lives and they shape us into who we are which is why changing your mind about what you want to do is okay. 

In the end it doesn’t matter whether you know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life right now because a lot of the time it changes.

“Divers, reef and fish at Little Brother, Red Sea, Egypt #SCUBA” by Derek Keats is licensed under CC BY 2.0.