What’s something that you love that you could pursue even more in college? What are three general things you want to get out of the next four years? How do you expect you will grow?
These are questions that EHS senior, Samuel Curtiss, wishes he had been asked more often in his last year of high school. Instead, he has answered the same question that readers are sure to guess before reading this article:
“What are your plans for next year?”
Curtiss said that he is asked this question almost every day.
“It’s one of the main conversation starters,” he said. “And when you go to any social gathering where the people are older than 22, that is their first question they ask.”
Curtiss notes the pressures this question might put on seniors.
“This question definitely could lead to self critical-thinking,” he said. “There are plenty of people who seem very sure about their next steps that could honestly make those who are less sure feel like they’re being left behind.”
Guidance counselors often help seniors think through their post-grad plans.
“I kind of think it has sort of two layers,” EHS guidance counselor Jon Moore said. “I think sometimes students themselves feel some stress about the future-planning, even without people asking them. And then when senior year comes and they get questions from other people, it just sort of adds to them.”
He also mentioned other challenges seniors may face that make answering this question so difficult.
“[There are] kids who do reach these personal goals they set for themselves and then the money prevents them from going,” he said. “I know people who get into great colleges and ones that they really could see themselves at. But then the finances obviously don’t let them go or something. So then, what is that like?”
Moore said he wonders if this pressure comes from the larger culture of society today.
“I do think it’s shifting though,” he said. “When I started doing this work, I do think there was a higher expectation for students to kind of just go the traditional college route. And I think there’s more awareness among adults and general teachers and school staff too, that there’s just different pathways.”
He suggests that seniors only share what they are comfortable sharing, and if a student is comfortable, he says they could respond with a variety of answers.
“It could be, ‘I haven’t decided yet. I’m still weighing my options,’ because there are so many different things that students can do,” he said. “You know, it can vary so much from one student to the next.”
Moore stressed the importance of considering this question and the future it entails as just one step, not a plan for one’s entire life.
“[It’s] sort of a one-step-at-a-time process,” he said. “We hear a lot about students who will choose one thing for the year after they graduate, and then change their mind after that. For example, transitioning or transferring to a different school…“[It] might be helpful for students to know that it doesn’t mean that you’re boxed in.”
Curtiss said he always tries to remember that 30% of college students change their major at least once and 10% change their major [at least] twice.
“It’s okay to not know what you’re going to do because so much of life is just experiencing,” he said. “If you take such a defined path you miss out on a lot of wonderful things.”
