Life after High School - Essay Example

Life after High school

High school graduation is often a principle milestone for growing up because it translates to joining college and living home, living on one’s own, or work. For most high school graduates, the excitement comes from getting a job, attending college, being away from school, living in one’s private place, and freedom from guardians or parents.

Life after high school requires preparation. I was lucky not to take the path of ‘I wish someone had told me when still in high school’. Learning from the experiences of my friends, I knew I needed to prepare for that day when my graduation would usher me to a whole new world. While in high school, adolescent and teenage excitement made it almost impossible for me to make firm decisions. However, when struggling with the best career to pursue, I stumbled on a phrase that said, ‘No decision is permanent. Over time, paths can be re-charted or changed’. Immediately, I realized that the key to efficient decisions was developing experience and skills required to attain my goals. One decision I made to prepare for my life after graduation was participation in volunteer work and summer jobs. For an adolescent, this meant sacrificing lots of holiday hours and even weekends to develop and gain work experience while discovering what I wanted. The advantage of volunteer work or summer jobs is that though a young adult, I was expected to meet and perform at competitive levels. As a result I developed skills such as working in teams, independently, and working under pressure. I also developed strong skills communication skills especially where the organizational culture dictated so. Based on my experience from different work environments, I understood the need for friendships.

Friendships during and after high school years could make or break. My participation in different kinds of jobs during high school made me realize the need to forge new friendships away from school. These friends were from different institutions and worked under different positions. At the same time, I pursued some crucial friendships within my circle of high school friends, especially those who shared in my vision to volunteer during holidays or engage in summer jobs. Consequently, I avoided forcing some high school friendships that I perceived could not work and were not formed on the basis of mutual benefits. Today, I do not waste too much time hanging out with people from high who I never got along with. I also try as much as possible to remain busy with voluntary work or summer jobs that I have little time left to get jealous upon seeing my friends make new friends that I do not know. In reality, I have realized that the things that joined us together were our year of study and the courses we were studying. Together, our year of study and the courses we undertook worked well in taming people’s characters to fit in the school environment. However, upon completion, out paths split and continually diverge until there can no longer be the slightest indication of where they were connected. Now I understand why my paths and that of some of my high school friends have split. For some friendships, both of us never invested in them, for others, it was situational friendship that only existed because of studying in the same classroom. For those high school friendships that hold to date, I give generously and take gratefully. I avoid suffocating and taking for granted my friends and they reciprocate the same too. Given this balance and appreciation of each other, some of my high school friendships will last. Like most of my friends, I had high hopes regarding my future.

After my graduation, I had high hopes of the future and believe that all I needed was college degree. The thought of someone with a college degree being more accomplished unlike just high school graduates is fresh in my mind. I cannot help the excitement of being referred to as accomplished, respected and notable because of possessing a college degree. This will enhance the confidence of any potential employer in my knowledge, skills, and experience. To this effect, I will become employable, especially if I combine my degree with other skills like problem solving, teamwork and critical thinking. Numerous research findings indicate the high possibility of easily moving up the ladder of employment by just possessing a university degree. Additionally, having the college experience will reinforce my decisions to succeed because I will experience real world competition with other equally or more trained college graduates for the same positions. Success requires working SMART by having specific goals that are measurable, attainable, reliable and timely. Furthermore, it means that I will not just attend college because it is routine and expected, but because of the benefits associated to it like being self-reliant as there is no one to look up to for academic decision besides myself.

Choosing a career to pursue after high school graduation is crucial. Normally, the right college major is as crucial as the attending the right college. Ultimately, students who choose a major that matches their interest have a higher possibility of sticking to it and complete their degree on time. While majors provide students with direction and facilitate their mapping out of their career path, some majors allow students to get into specific career fields. However, after high school graduation, very few graduates select the major that suits them. According to Sheehy , close to 80% of high school graduates in 2013 undertaking ACT tests reported knowing the careers they would pursue in college. However, only about 30% of these graduates chose a major that aligned to their interests. The implication of the study findings was that majority of high school graduates did not know exactly what they wanted to become upon growing up. Some went ahead to dismiss the requirement that they should know exactly what they wanted to become in future, and said that they were too young for such knowledge. The presence of high statistics in favor of most high school graduates not choosing the right career paths indicates the thought-provoking and gut wrenching nature of college decision. The difficulty of choosing a college to achieve one’s career path exemplifies the fact that choosing a major should be founded on one’s knowledge of self and the knowledge that making the wrong decision will be followed by harsh consequences.

Amidst the complexity of making college and career path decisions, high school graduates do not need to panic. Nonetheless, graduates must understand that the difficulty of making college and career path choices upon graduation from high school is something that has been in existence for as long as high school graduation has been in existence. To this effect, there is no wrong or right choice of college and career path because the most important thing to get one’s first job is a college degree after which one can change their career over to their preferred courses. The first thing to college and career path choice is self-assessment or examination of personal interests. One need to understand what excites them. For instance, high school graduates interested in cooking can choose career paths inclined towards hospitality. Students interested in teaching can pursue career paths of education and teaching. Students interested in modeling can pursue careers in beauty pageants. The most significant aspect of making such career path decisions is adequate knowledge of personal interests. For students pursuing teaching and education, the future could find them transition into lecturers or university professors. For students who are unsure about the careers to pursue, the internet has numerous sites and resources regarding identification of appealing careers. There are also college centers where students can visit for and participate in self-tests regarding their interests and consequently identification of possible career paths and colleges. Personal career interests can be influenced by factors such as potential job characteristics, influence from family and peers, characteristics of the major, and assumptions and myths regarding introductory courses.

Students can be influenced by the characteristics of the major. A major can influence a high school graduate who understands their abilities and weaknesses. For instance, a student who has grown up assisting their parents or guardians in a business could be inclined towards finance. The students perceive finance as holding the key to the success of their business, especially for its combination of accounting, costing, and taxation concepts among others. Additionally, a student with a strong religious background could be inclined towards studying theology or psychology for the impact it has in transforming people’s lives. Additionally, students could be inclined towards a course because they performed well in them during their high school years. Finally, students who undertake extracurricular activities can identify their strengths and upon high school graduation pursue them. For instance, students participating in high school basketball sports are more likely to pursue the sport as a career. Moreover, graduates who have had previous opportunities of participating in summer jobs can pursue a career planning SWOT analysis based on the things about themselves that they learnt from the jobs.

While examination of personal interests and abilities is crucial, high school graduates need to examine the elements they value in their work. For instance, some students place more value assisting the society, security, working alone, working in groups, working under pressure, or status. Such values can be used to evaluate workplace values to determine their job, their career and their work. People who value assisting the society can pursue community development or social work studies as their career paths. Additionally, people who values assisting the society become healthier could pursue careers in public health or nursing. Career paths such as psychologists and physicians are also linked to people who like assisting the society through disease prevention. During high school years and real life, some students could realize they value experiments and laboratory sessions and were never wrong on any experiment results. Such graduates can pursue career paths as scientific researchers, or specifically pursue career paths like biologists, chemical engineering or physicists. Those students who value working alone can pursue business or commerce related courses for self-employment or employment in jobs the value confidentiality, or silence. Workplaces like call centers or customer care units require individuals with strong capability of managing people. People calling in present different complaints and the agents must learn how to manage their anger and meet their needs. In call centers, the agents must be confident and strong enough to avoid personalizing caller’s abusive or disrespectful words or actions. Stress management skills are also a prerequisite in such work environments.

After identifying one’s interests, abilities, and values at work, high school graduates must take time to explore their career. For instance, students pursing education or teaching must identify the subjects to pursue. College majors like psychology also requires that one narrows down to a specific course like counseling drug addicts, marriage counselors, or academic counseling among others. In order to pursue specific career paths for some majors, graduates must understand whether or not they require advanced degree, and whether or not their plans preclude graduate study. For instance, a high school graduate interested in a career in arts yet the family is convinced he/she should emulate a career pursued by their father or mother, or a relative. Career exploration also involves evaluating the reasons for pursuing a career path such as influence from friends, socially defined gender roles, and culture. At this point, a reality check is crucial since one is expected to honestly investigate their options to understand their interest in being in a given career and their value for people in that career and the skills they have in that field. For instance, a person could value a career as a doctor but lacks the required scientific skills to qualify for the course. A reality check could result in negative or positive findings and it is up to students to accept and move on, and not stall in non-acceptance.