I’ve heard that question being uttered numerous times. Regardless of whether it’s said in jest or with a straight face, there’s always a strong element of truth hiding behind that seemingly innocent query. I have spent the last few months trying to deconstruct this seemingly eternal question and I’m particularly interested in helping high school students figure things out, though I think that what I’m doing can benefit anyone who ponders the question.

During my research, I’ve talked to numerous people, ranging from high school students to public school teachers and officials and everyone in between. Just last week, I sat down with a family in Durham to discuss this challenge. The couple I met with, Phil and Jane, are the parents of David, who’s a junior in high school. David is in the middle of trying to decide what major to pursue and where to attend college.

The four of us talked at their dinner table, and I learned a lot from our conversation. Even with the support of two extremely intelligent and involved parents, it is still not an easy decision for David, an extremely bright student, to make. The current research resources available to him (primarily books), while of good quality, are dry and not in the least bit engaging. As our discussion progressed, many of the observations I’ve made during my research were reinforced. Some of those observations, in no particular order, include:

Given these bits of knowledge, I am confident that the task of answering the question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” can be made a little less daunting. In Part 2 of this post, I’ll examine some of my thoughts on how to address this challenge.