“Avery, take a look at these careers.” As a freshman in high school, I was not worried about my future career, but as the question kept coming up, I couldn’t answer with a job that I wanted to pursue. I felt like I was falling behind. I felt like I had no plan for the future.
As a junior taking TCC classes and graduating next year, I’ve had time to think about my future more and more often. My friends talk about what career they want and the Ben Barber classes they’re taking. My parents would ask me, “what do you want to do?” On a Sunday after church, the conversation was brought up in the car and my parents said, “Avery, you need to pray about it and know that God is going to guide you.”
I feel like it’s a battle to have conversations about college with my parents. Even though I realize that college is coming sooner and sooner, I find myself thinking, “why do I have to decide now?” Seriously, how am I even qualified to choose a career when I’ve barely experienced life yet?
As I look at my parents’ career journeys and who they are now, I realize that maybe even adults don’t have it as figured out as it seems they do. My dad’s plan was never to be in education. He originally got his degree in ministry and spent over 12 years pastoring a church. When things didn’t work out, he decided that he would look for a teaching position like my mom and got his degree in order to do so. When I think about my parents’ journey, I see that they were not afraid to step into new opportunities when they came up, even if it was unexpected. My mom went from teaching to getting her master’s to be a school counselor, and my dad went from ministry to teaching to getting his master’s to become an Assistant Principal. Maybe they didn’t always have a solid plan either, and maybe being able to move forward while a plan is still coming together is part of life. I want that. The ability to move forward, with confidence right where I am, whether I know my next step or not.
So in my current situation, I ask myself how I can keep moving forward. One step at a time. Moving forward looks like taking dual credit classes through TCC, researching colleges and jobs, and stepping into opportunities as they arise, like mentoring. I am looking at jobs and seeing what I might be interested in doing for the rest of my life, so I can then decide what college program is right for me. Even while I am unsure, I am taking steps and giving serious thought to the next step in my life. Surely one day it will all come together, right?
I know that life is not going to get any easier. I have learned from my parents that things are going to work out. Just like it worked out for them. Something that keeps me going is a verse from the Bible. Proverbs 16:9 says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”
