Career Goals During High School

At what age do teenagers need to have a good idea of what they "think" they want to do, in terms of a career, and start planning it as far as what classes to take in high school and college?  My daughter is a freshman so she has a few years yet and I know my stepdaughter changed her career goals the last year of high school.  Many kids don't make up their mind until after high school, right?

My oldest used to want to be a vet, a nurse (though I can't see her shopping for nurse scrub sets at http://www.blueskyscrubs.com if the way she squealed when I cut my finger last week was any indication), an artist, a horse trainer, an architect, and now interior designer.  She is 14 - she has time to get it figured out.

As an adult, I would change my mind if we could afford it - I'd go to law school!  At the very least, I'd finish my paralegal degree but becoming an attorney would be my dream.

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Don't Grow Up So Fast!

Why do schools expect kids in junior high to know what they want to be when they grow up?  My 8th grade daughter brought home papers they want her to fill out for homework about it.  She knows she'll be looking at jobs in health care like nursing or pet health care, like a vet. Of course, she also said she wanted to be an auto mechanic too. Who knows? In 8th grade, I certainly don't expect her to know already.

I'll worry more about it when she's in 11th or 12th grade.  As long as she's doing the best she can in school (and she is, she's in an advanced math and advanced biology class as an 8th grader, taking high school classes), I am so not worried about what she wants to be when she grows up yet.  Good grades, sports, good friends - that's all I want her to worry about right now.

Notice, I didn't put BOYS in there anywhere.  She was under the mistaken impression that as soon as she got into 9th grade, she'd be able to date.  I about rolled off the chair laughing.

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Husband Says Open a Business

My husband mentioned, as we drove by a vacant store in our area recently, that I should open up a shop carrying alternative religious items. Seeing how we live in a heavy Mennonite community and most everybody I know is very christian, I don't think that would go over very well in this area.

I wouldn't even know how to go about doing something like that even if I wanted to, which I don't. I'd have to hire business plan consultants. The last time I wrote a business plan was for a college class about 18 years ago or so. I was about 18 or 19 and my idea for a store was a store similar to Frederick's of Hollywood. Yes, I was a troublemaker but I have to give my college professor credit...he didn't squirm much. I did get an "A"!

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