Expectations In Life

Go to school, graduate, go to college or university to study something you can earn a lot of money with, get a job with a good and regular income and then start a family. That is usually what people have in mind when thinking about their future. Sometimes the order of these steps varies, for example when someone is forced- more than others- to find a partner as early as possible, but the plans all look a lot like this. 

The problem with this is that it influences us, our choices and our plans for the future. Even though we enjoy singing, we stop doing it because we do not excel at it and could not get anything out of it financially; we learn things which do not interest us to get good grades to be able to keep our options open regarding jobs that bring in a lot of money; we do maths, English, biology, subjects we get good grades in, when we would much rather do music, art, p.e.. We concentrate on things we are good at, not the ones that are good for us or we enjoy doing. There are so many people who would rather do something else than what they are doing at the moment; medical students who would rather be musicians, artists who would rather be mathematicians. The happiest and luckiest ones are the ones whose interests match their talents.

 The ideology of the consumer society we live in (and are a part of, of course) is partly responsible for this: we need a lot of money to convince ourselves we are happy and therefore we need a "good" job because we worry about our financial future. There also is the competition with the rest of the world. We have to be faster, richer, prettier, smarter, more successful and overall better to brag about it and steal each other's university places and jobs. 

Another problem is the stress that is caused by grades, relationships, money and much more. The pressure to be successful can cause insecurity and increment the risk of mental illness. Further, we neglect our health for school. Not everyone of course, but the ones who try to fight back suffer other consequences. We pull all-nighters, cancel plans with our friends, ignore our illnesses just to finish school projects we want to get a good grade in. Education is important but can be obtained without the pressure to get good grades or competition and with more individual focus. 

Moreover, the syllabus contains things we do not need to know. It does have the advantage of partly guaranteeing a basic education, but it teaches many students subjects they do not need in life. Though it is important learn about some topics, especially of the subjects politics, English, history and philosophy to help build an open and educated society. 

In addition to that, and this was already partly mentioned, our diversity is reduced. We neglect our interests which make out who we are to conform to guidelines forced onto us and dedicate ourselves to what we are expected to do. We study for maths for hours instead of playing the piano and instead of doing handicrafts we have to paint a picture for school we do not like the style of. 

I am not saying you all should completely neglect school, there are more efficient ways to fight the system, which (unfortunately for now) require you to have at least a high school diploma. I want to remind you of what really counts which is what we enjoy doing and not the money we can get out of it. More precisely this means you should give up a hobby just because you cannot see yourself getting job with it and it also means you should be informed about alternative jobs which might help you follow your dreams.