Preparing too Early

There are such things as starting too early, and kids don’t always know what they want to do when they get to a college level, some may believe they do but none of us really do. We all have dreams of what we want to do for the rest of our lives when we are young, most commonly, doctors, firefighters, vets, teachers, astronauts, and race car drivers, these are all realistic but also unrealistic jobs for most people. The thought of going to space or helpings animals every day is amazing and it’s what you have your heart set on but it’s not always what would be best for you. Going into high school you get asked by friends and family “what do you want to go to college for?” or “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or even “Have you thought about college yet?” This question is so frequent and overwhelming to such a young mind you start to panic. I remember being a freshman and at every family event I would be asked “College?” and it gets you thinking should we already be prepared for that? Should I know what I want to be for the rest of my life?

Asking around I’ve found that not many people know what they want to be for the rest of their lives, not many people will stick with one thing forever, so why are we pushing kids to make a decision so young? We push and push to have kids think they want to be something they don’t, they take classes in high school and start looking into college as sophomores, slowly as life gets more serious you slowly get burnt out, you start overthinking and wondering if this is what you really want, you get overwhelmed with the fact that you committed your life to one thing and never opened your mind to other things, “Is it too late?” “Is this what I really want?” you ask yourself. The doubt sets in but maybe it is too late, you’ve worked so hard for what? To give up? You talk about wanting to become this great thing but getting burnt out in high school because everyone pushed you so hard to do this, it’s exhausting for such a young mind.

I believe letting kids explore everything is so much better than just pushing them to love one thing. It’s like continuously eating one thing, over and over again you get bored, and you start to despise that thing because you’ve had it every day of your life since you were a child. You get bored and outgrow doing just one thing, this happens with everything in life, sports, friends, and school, and you outgrow and mature away from things. Pushing young kids to figure out what they want to do at such a young age makes it so they are burnt out at a young age. Many people will go through college and change majors at least once, personally, I’ve changed what I’ve wanted to do with my life at least 5 times being just a senior in high school, you outgrow ideas and think more realistically the older you get. People may love doing one thing but it doesn’t mean they should do that for the rest of their life, splitting up things from what you love and what you want to do for work will help make it so you won’t get burnt out, it allows you to relax doing the thing you love and separate work and life.

I believe there is such a thing as pushing or prepping kids too young, none of us know what we want to do for the rest of our lives being 12 years old, we may think we do but we never really do. Allowing kids to venture out and get a mix of everything and allowing them to really figure out what they want to do, what they have an interest in, and explore all things. Kids get pushed into doing one thing for their whole lives, we constantly ask what they are thinking of for college or what they want to be when they grow up, we “prep” them to succeed but end up prepping too much and cause them to fail.

“Large lecture college classes” by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.