Struggling to decide

Knowing what to do with the rest of your life can be a major struggle for many, if not most, teenagers and young adults.

Students experience pressure to find career paths during high school, and many feel that the limited time before having to decide does not allow for proper exploration of potential careers. Even years later in college, students can still find it hard to decide. A University of South Florida study found that an estimated 75 percent of students change their major at least once before college graduation. One example of this uncertainty is with Deb Fattes, a six-time career changer and mother of three District 95 students.

“Honestly, I don’t think you should know what you want to do when you grow up until you’re closer to 30. I think you should just experience life, but that’s not the path Morgan wants to take,” Fattes said. “I think there’s nothing wrong with changing your major, and changing schools if you need to because you have to be happy. The most successful people in the world are happy. I don’t view [my current career] as a job. I love it.”

From first-hand experience, Fattes knows what it’s like to change majors and switch careers after entering college. Because of her uncertainty in college and through each career she has pursued, Fattes is shocked that her daughter already knows what she wants to pursue.

“My career path is crazy. That’s why it’s funny that Morgan knows what she wants to do, because my career changes as my life changes,” Fattes said. “I never pushed her or anything, but I think she’s watched me be successful and strategize things [so] that she knew [what] she had to [do]. I’m very much the mom that [says], ‘you’ve got to figure it out. I’m not going to do it for you.’ I think that when you own it you’re more responsible, and I watched certain friends be very successful doing that so I try to put it on my kids [to] do better than I did.”

Through this method of parenting, Fattes’ daughter, Morgan Beaudoin, sophomore, says she actually already has her whole life planned out, and has had this plan since fifth or sixth grade  

“I want to go to law school, graduate, start practicing, [and] maybe go into the private sector for a little bit. I want to become a family attorney and deal with divorce. Then my dream goal is to be a Supreme Court Justice by the time I’m 75. Everyone else says I’m very good at arguing myself out of situations, so everybody growing up said I should become a lawyer, and then I thought about it one day.”

Although Morgan figured out her passion and career path by age 11, her older brother James Beaudoin, senior, is still undecided.

“I know people say it’s not a big deal to go into college undecided, but nowadays certain jobs and internships look for a university that has a good school based on that business or topic. You have to also realize that we’re still kids,” James said. “No matter if we’re 17, 18, or whatever [age] going to college, we’re still kids, and we don’t know. I’m so unplanned on what I want to do, [and] although I’m pretty sure I want to go into marketing and advertising, I don’t know that for sure just because there are so many [things] I have passions for. Time will tell.”   

While struggling to find his true passion, James finds that high school is not enough time to figure out his career, and suggests that the structure of high school should change.  

“I think they should make classes in high school more mandatory to take, like different art classes and business classes, and not just make them more elective-type to choose because then people don’t get experience to other things,” James said. “[For example,] I took a drafting class my freshman year and I absolutely hated it. Then sophomore year came around, I took a marketing class, and I fell in love with it.”

Although he feels this way, James agrees with his sister that you do at least begin to find your passions during high school, even without mandatory exploration of classes. Morgan also relates this introduction from her F.A.M.E class.

“Your first day of freshman year in F.A.M.E they basically ask you what you want to be when you’re older,” Morgan said. “I feel like in high school they really push you to find out what your interests are and what you enjoy doing because they really want to set you up for success, not be in the middle of college and realize, ‘I’m studying the completely wrong major, and I’ve already spent all of this money. Now I will have to restart.’”

Although Morgan is set on a career at the moment, unlike many other parents, her mother does not expect her children to know what they want to do by the end of high school and believes that it is okay for them to experience life first before they figure out what career makes them happy.

“I’m a big believer in having faith and it will all work out. You can’t stress about things. I have met so many amazing, educated, and well-rounded people in the world, and none of them took a straight path,” Fattes said. “You’ve got to follow your gut-instinct and your heart.”