How did you figure out what you want to do in life

I'm a senior in high school and the biggest question i get is, "What do you want to do after high school?" And I have no clue so I wanted to see what set you off on your road to life.

Get money, fuck bitches/prostitutes.

Go 2 workforce or vocational education for the first step.

lol thats a good question, i dont know also

When I was in highschool, I was already engrossed on how to make money. Maybe that's why I already made my decision during my second year of HS.

Find what you like to do, and find a way to make money doing it. I liked physics in high school and ended up getting my BS in Aerospace Engineering.

[color=#993300]Figure out what you enjoy doing, but finding your way is really what college is for. I'm historically a very scientific person, but because of that, I did a sort of arts immersion. Talking to advisers and college counselors would be very helpful in finding things out. But remember, you still have to take core classes in college, which gives you time to explore while you finish those cores.

Figured it out before I went to college by talking with my parents and trying a couple of online career aptitude tests. All sort of focused on the idea of me doing something medical which really appealed to me. Ended up wanting to be a nurse so I decided to go for it.

One part of it is drive; you have to find something you want to do and be determined to make it no matter what the cost (don't kill someone though lol). Another part of it is knowing about your field; is it easy to get into, does it require a college degree, how much money will you make, is this realistic, etc. last part is thinking about your alternatives; basically if this plan doesn't work out for any reason what can I do instead or is there anything else I want to do (nursing school and getting into nursing is a lot of work so I had back ups incase I didn't succeed).

We don't always have the ability to choose what we want to do in our lives right away or know what we want to do initially, so just work hard to figure out what it is you'd like to do and work hard towards that goal.

I ended up jumping around a lot after I turned 18. When I was 19 I moved 700 miles with the intention of going to a Chiropractic school. I panicked though with tuition costs and decided to get my undergrad at a cheaper school which was business management. I hated it so much though and my GPA was dropping because of it. So I dropped out of school until I figured out what I wanted to do.

So I went through this "oh god, I don't know what I want to do with my life" stage for 2 years.

I ended up dinking around in Photoshop and did scanlation work for those two years just to occupy myself and to keep myself distracted from the fact that I seriously had no idea what I wanted to do with myself. All I had was a lousy day job that paid $10/hr.

I ended up getting involved politically too in 2012 and met a lot of great people and I ended up helping graphically (in a minor way) for a couple people I supported locally. That was when I realized I could actually use my graphic skills I taught myself from scanlation and apply it with graphic design and do a lot more with it.

So I started going to school for graphic design and that was when I really felt at home and found my passion for something.

If there's anything I learned from all of that is that you can't force yourself to figure out what you want to do. You have to allow yourself to explore even if that means having a lousy job for a few years while you find yourself. Some people are lucky where they immediately know what they want to do, I had to do a lot of self discovery and playing around.

Not to mention, they say you go through a lot of development in your teens, but it's a laughing matter compared to going through your early twenties. Especially if you're financially dependent on yourself. You'll grow more in 2 years and you won't even feel like the same person just from the life experience you're forced to deal with.

This. I'm in the middle of the self discovery phase right now. It sucks being a college grad and still not knowing what to do with your life.

I had to try many different things on my own in order to figure out my calling in life. Unfortunately, I'm in debt so I can't go back to school in that field until I pay it off. My only regret was being too poor to own a computer when I was a teenager, otherwise programming would've been my first career choice rather than psychology. I don't even know why I picked Psychology in the first place. I'm most certainly not a people person...

I didnt choose what i wanted to do in life, life chose what it wanted to do with me.

I also find it strangely funny. I who goes to one of the best public schools in America, takes advanced classes, and gets to go to college for free because my step-dad was in the military is having trouble finding something to do. But I accept that it is apart of life so I think I've devised my plan for at least for now. I'm going to go into the military, most likely air force, and do what my cousin is doing being a military police officer and just travelling the world. He's been to Italy, Rome, and right now he's in Poland. And if I don't wanna keep doing that I'll just go to college.

Well it's different for everyone. As it stands, I'm 21, and in my 2nd year of college after getting kicked out the Science University during my 2nd year which was back in 2012. Time sure flies, and even though I'm taken a more open type of major (Biochemistry -> Anthropology) not much has changed, I still haven't figured out what I want to do.


It's tough figuring out what YOU what to do when you've been with Asian parents who have been hassling you to become the almighty high-salary doctor all your life. It was only recently I stopped caring what they want me to be, and it certainly has taken less of a toll on my stress. Not that I dislike my major, but I may enter a linguistics concentration since I do love language and more particularly, Japanese culture and I'm a total fucking weeb. Who knows, I may want to teach overseas.

What you want to do with life doesn't need to be decided or is even set in stone after your senior year of high school. Your interests changes, the way you view certain aspects of the world will change.

The best thing for you to do is really decided where you want to go next rather than figure out what you want to do. If you want to head to college in the fall best if you started applying last year and took a ACT or SAT. If you want to enter the job market to get work experience, well hopefully you already have one or know someone willing to hire you cause job market isn't exactly easy right now.

Just take you time don't rush and find your own interests. Hell I am bout to turn 27 and still no idea what I really want to do...

I went through a period where I didn't know if I should study linguistics (following in my mother's steps, but I also enjoy it), studying psychology or going for art. These are all things that picked my interest. Linguistics, however is very constricting and although by studying psychology I could go into art therapy I always liked art and drawing and coming up with new characters and places a lot more than the other two. But every other career in art seemed fairly easy, so I picked animation which gives me a choice of being either an animator , concept artist or illustrator in the future and also means I have to work my ass off to be good at it. I will never be bored and I'm pretty sure it will be very fulfilling.

However if I find out that isn't for me, I'll go into the psychology field for sure.This is because nothing is set in stone, and if you pick something but it doesn't go right you just gotta go after something else. It's pretty simple. Just pick something you enjoy and see where that goes. If you wanna work, do that. Wanna study? do that. Just don't care too much about what people say.

I'm in the same boat as you, I only have vague ideas of what I want to do and half of those are pipe dreams so... good luck!

I saw which paycheck was fatter.

Go with your interests. If it is something you are really passionate about then you can't go wrong.

I'm going to be 21 this October and I still don't know what I want to do with my life.

I'm in the exact position I was two years ago when I was finishing up high school and I know how it feels to see everybody else getting ready to enter college and start following their dreams while you're completely lost. It's not a good feeling, that's for sure.

I always assumed it would eventually hit me when the time was right and I wouldn't force myself to try to find it.