What do you want to be in the future?

'What do you want to be when you grow up?'

 

I read an article by a high school student expressing how this question simplifies the vast possibilities of their future and weighs heavily on their minds.

 

For a moment, I reflected on how this seemingly innocent question might be a burden to someone. Then, I felt a pang of sadness realizing that no one asks me this question anymore. I understand that, 'physically,' I'm fully grown, so asking what I want to be when I grow up doesn't make sense. But what struck me was that not only do others not ask about my future aspirations, but I also stopped contemplating them myself.

 

I’ve only lived a little over half of my life, with the remaining half or at least another third ahead of me, and I realized the need to make more concrete plans for it. Someone often limits my future based on my age and appearance, as if my prime years have passed and my remaining life should be spent merely maintaining my health and chatting with those around me. I refuse to accept that. I still hold on to the aspirations I had in my teens and twenties.

In fact, I’ve grown more mature and better at managing myself than I was back then. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life the same way I’ve lived up to now. I still have the potential to become 'anything' in the future.

 

What do you want to be in the future?

 

I will strive to achieve the dream I had to give up due to unavoidable circumstances when I was a teenager. I want to become [         ] in the future.