When you were a kid the big question was, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Which translated into, “What is your dream?” When you were in high school it was, “Where are you going to college?” Which meant, “Do you really think you are going to get into that school?” When you finally get to college the question changed to, “What is your major?” Which was interpreted as, “Do you want to be rich or happy?” Now as you leave school, the huge question is, “What are you going to do after graduation?” Which really means, “What are you going to do for the rest of your life?”
As you roll out of bed each morning, stubbing your toe, and bumping into walls on the way to the bathroom, then splashing some water onto your face, does this question ever enter your mind? Not usually, right? It is not a question to be taken lightly. It should not just roll off of your tongue. But why then does it seem to roll so easily off our professors’ tongues?
One professor I talked with, actually used it to open a conversation. No, “Hello. How are you today?” No, “How is it going?” Not even a, “How are your classes?” He just flat out said, “So what are you going to do after graduation?”
My first instinct was to slap him upside the head, say, “How the hell should I know,” then scold him for the next two hours on why that is not a nice thing to ask a senior in their last semester. But like an average senior in their last semester, I had about 20 things to do and only a half hour to do them in. So, I calmly replied, “I’m not sure.” Then I walked out of the room, cursing all of the horrible thoughts running through my head. I know they feel the need to guide us in the right direction, and make us think about the future, but what a way to ruin a perfectly good day.
I do not believe that I have to know today what I am going to do for the rest of my life. I have enough pressures with classes, work, my senior project and the dismal existence that is my social life. I do not want to worry about next year, when I am totally consumed with worrying about today. If something great happens to me or if it does not, I will totally be okay with that. I can be happy with what I have. I do not need the most important job in the world, I just have to like what I do.
But some professors do not think this is a good enough answer. They dig and push and ask the same question until you can condense your life goals into a two sentence answer, because that is all the time they have to listen to you, anyway.
I wonder if they knew what they were going to do for the rest of their lives after they graduated. I would bet all of my financial aid, that less than 2 percent saw themselves working at the University of La Verne.
I recall a lecture from high school, where we were told that a person changes their career an average of five times. It sounds like a lot, but I think it is natural. Knowing this fun fact makes me more comfortable with my future.
Do not get me wrong. I do worry and I do get scared about life after graduation, but I live a much happier life knowing that I do not have to decide at 21 what I am going to by the time I am 50.
I applaud those students who have it together, and know what they are going to do. But, I am not one of those students. I know my professors are just trying to do their job, but I wish they would just stop asking me these questions. Ask me in 20 years what I want to be when I grow up, and maybe I will have an answer.
Laura Ambriz, a senior communications major, is photography editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ambrizl@ulv.edu.
