Throughout my junior year, I've pondered many times about what I want to pursue after high school and the ways in which I'll be doing so. I mean c'mon now, haven't we all had that moment where we say to ourselves "Man, what am I going to be doing for the rest of my life?"
With this being said, I wanted to tell a story about a boy I met in the waiting room of my therapy office today.
He was tall, and I could tell he was older than me. When he signed in with the receptionist he was in complete joy. "So, today was my final day of highschool, I did it," the boy said. "Well hey way to go!" the receptionist replied. After them chatting about his current situation, I couldn't help but be curious. I wondered "What are his plans after high school? What does he like to do? Where will he potentially go to college?"
People's stories interest me; contrary to the Detroit Free Press I had in my hand, so I decided to talk to him instead. Whenever I get a chance to talk to new people, I take it. In my opinion we can't learn something new everyday if we aren't willing to try.
He sat down in front of me, and seemed shy at first. After about a minute or so I put my paper down and said "Hey, so your last day of high school was today? Very cool." He responded with, "Yeah it was, was yours too?" After I told him no, and that I was only a junior, he said, "Ah okay, well don't worry your time will come!"
To my surprise this boy I was chatting with is graduating from Mott on Sunday, however I didn't get a chance to know his name. Although, I did ask him about his plans after high school, and as he was describing them to me his shoulders dropped, his head hung lower, and he had a harder time maintaining eye contact with me.
He described to me that after high school he planned on working for a couple years to potentially save money for community college. He also explained how he wanted to go into electrician work, since he worked well with his hands and the majority of his family worked in the industry do he'd be able to land a good job. He said the money he'd raise from working for a couple of years would go to the school-based-training he'd be required to go through in order to be an electrician.
This was interesting to me, and I told him that it sounded like a cool plan. However, just by his body language alone I knew that being an electrician wasn't exactly what he dreamed of doing one day.
The dynamic of the conversation changed when I asked, "Well, if there were no restrictions on money or grades, what would your dream job be?"
Trying to keep calm, he replied with, "Well I've always wanted to be a philosopher."
His answer just about blew me out of the water. A philosopher he said. Honestly, when was the last time someone gave you that answer? For me, this was a first.
Now that I knew the what, I needed to know the why. So, I asked him. He responded with something along the lines of, "I believe that I have a lot of important and different beliefs. Society is pretty messed up- wait no, scratch that, society IS messed up. I want to explain to people my beliefs as to why society is so wrong."
It saddens me to know that America, and quite frankly the world, isn't fully equip for all of us to pursue our dreams and utter most passions within our lifetimes. It breaks my heart to hear stories like these, because who knows, maybe this boy could be one of the best future philosophers- maybe he'd even be featured in our great grandchildren's textbooks.
