I Graduated High School, Now What?

June 14, 2013

Say you wake up at 8 am. You shower, eat breakfast, brush your teeth... and get to work at 9. You spend your day working, leave the office at 5, and get home at about 5:30. You unwind for a few minutes, and then start making dinner. By the time you’re done cooking, eating and cleaning, it’s 7 o’clock. You want to make sure that you get in your daily exercise, but you need to digest first, so after watching TV for a half hour, you start your workout. An hour later, it’s 8:30. And after showering, it’s 8:45. You now have about 3 hours before you go to sleep and start your day over again.

There are two points I want to make.

1. Your career is very important. Aside from routine daily activities, the majority of your day will be work. That big 8 hour chunk. 9-to-5. And since this will be true for, say, 50 years, I don’t think it’d be too much of a stretch to say that the majority of your life will be work. For this reason, I think that it’d be wise to give this decision the time and thought that it deserves.*

   *A more formal way of putting this:

   1. You're going to spend a long period of time working.
   2. The value of a slightly more enjoyable job is large because the small incease in happiness is being multiplied over a long period of time.
   3. Given that the value of finding a more enjoyable job is so high, it's worth your time to research careers and find the right one for you.

2. When you ask people, “What do you want to do with your life?”, I don’t think that they give you an honest answer. They’re not trying to deceive you, but they’re answering a different question. The question that they hear is, “Given that you'll be busy from 9-5 every weekday for 50 years, what else would you like to fit in to your life?”.

   This is what I call, the money problem. You have to make money... so you have to work... but doing so takes up the time you’d need to do a lot of things you want to do in life (hobbies, travel, ambitions, volunteer work, creative pursuits, intellectual pursuits...).

   The money problem is tough to avoid. However, tough doesn’t mean impossible. It just means that it’ll take risk, hard work, and sacrifice. You could try something like a startup that’ll make you enough money to retire. Or you could lower your standard of living so you could afford to work less. Again, this all would require risk, hard work, and sacrifice - whether or not it’s worth it is up to you.

Other options besides college

There are plenty of things you could do besides going to college. You probably never seriously considered a lot of them. Given how important your career is, I think you should at least give them some thought.

However, I realize it’d be impossible to give each option its due diligence, and that a lot of things don’t require much thought for you to realize that they doesn’t interest you. So then, use your judgement, and give these things as much thought as you think is appropriate.

Here’s a list of things you may be interested in that don’t require a traditional college degree:

Spiritual

• Pastor
• Rabbi
• Buddhist monk

Requires training, classes, trade school

• Electrician, carpenter, plumber, landscaper
• Chef
• Pilot
• Designer (web, graphic, fashion, interior, industrial...)
• Real estate agent
• Programmer
• Photographer
• Personal trainer, massage therapist
• Taxi driver, limo driver, truck driver
• Working for a charity

Low skill

• Blue collar/construction
• Secretary
• Farmer
• Security guard

Art/hobby

• Actor, screenwriter, director
• Comedian, magician, performer
• Musician
• Artist
• Writer

Military, law enforcement, protective services (ex. fire fighter)

A startup or small business!

So then, why should I go to college?

Despite all of these interesting options, college is still probably right for you, for two main reasons:

1. The social atmosphere. The social atmosphere in college is about as perfect as it gets. Studies have shown that repeated, unplanned interactions + an atmosphere that encourages you to let your guard down are necessary for relationships to take form, and there’s no place that provides this better than college does. In college, you live with thousands of other kids who are your age, who are in the same position as you, and who are doing the same things as you (this doesn't sound like too big a deal because you grew up with it throughout K-12, but you'll realize how big a deal it is once it's gone). You live in the same dorms, eat at the same dining halls, study at the same libraries, use the same gyms, and go to the same parties as all of these people. The experiences you’ll have will teach you many life lessons, lead to lasting friendships, and be a lot of fun!
2. Because it helps you explore your interests. Most of you don’t know what you want to do, so this is very valuable. You'll have the opportunity to take a variety of classes, talk with smart professors, participate in research and projects, join clubs and organizations etc. etc. And although there are a lot of things you could do without a college degree, there are a lot more things that require you to have one. College will provide you with time, options, and security, which are all pretty strong selling points.

Next: The Process of Exploring Your Interests -->