Growing up is when our dreams start to fall into place.

As a child, though, we are built up to be anything we want to be, President, a lawyer from Harvard. Of course we don’t have ambitions like this now, but shouldn’t we still be pushed to our full potential?

When we get older we are shut down more and more. Whether our goals are too small, and even too large, skepticism always seems to be sent our way. The future is full of endless possibilities for our youth, and it is our job to find out where we belong. But, if someone wants to be a hairdresser or construction worker, they are lectured about finding a “real job.” Lately, I think there has been a misconception about what succeeding really is.

To me, succeeding is finding something you are good at and expanding it into a career. What good is it to go to a four-year university and get a degree in something you hate?

In order to ensure success for our youth, they should be guided in the right direction and give them options in order to achieve that goal. Of course, it is great when people have plans to go to a four year university, but it should not be forced upon someone who already has a well thought out plan for something else.

Instead of being shot down for our aspirations we should be pushed to do what will make us happy. We need people to believe in us when we may not believe in ourselves and help us achieve our goal, not the goal society has pre-set for us.

The future is full of blank pages. So as students our job is not necessarily to be the cookie-cutter high school graduate, but to prepare us for our plans to find our niche in the future.