The BIG Question

Eight years ago, I was a senior in high school with my sights set on college. It seemed as if everyone and their mother (literally) were asking me the same BIG question, “What do you want to do after high school?” Without hesitation I would answer, “I’m going to study biochemistry!”

Even though I was 19 years old with little idea of what I wanted to do next week, I had somehow figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Looking back at that time, I had confidently landed on that answer for two reasons:

The first reason made some sense. I really enjoyed my high school AP chemistry class. My teacher transformed the tedious work of memorizing periodic tables and counting electrons into engaging subjects. Why wouldn’t I want to study that in college?

The second reason was more shallow. I quickly found that telling people you want to study something in the field of science carries a certain degree of esteem. I enjoyed receiving their responses of “OO!”s and “AH!”s when I said I wanted to be a biochemist.

Yet, I had little idea of what a biochemistry career actually entailed.

Off to college

That next fall I went off to college and stepped foot into my first biochem class – Intro to Biochemistry. During that class, professionals from doctors to scientists shared about various career options in the field of biochemistry. Knowing blood makes me nauseous, I quickly crossed off anything in the medical field. The next career to go was anything that had to do with working in a laboratory and staring into microscopes. I needed to be around people!

Before I knew it I had come to the conclusion that there were absolutely no careers in biochemistry that I wanted to pursue. There I was, not even halfway through my first semester of college, and I already wanted to change my major.

Another thing that I quickly learned – not knowing what career to pursue or what you want to study can be a very overwhelming feeling. Thankfully I had some help.

I met with my academic advisor to discuss my dilemma, and she introduced me to a very people-focused major with a broad range of career options that piqued my interest – Human Development & Family Science. Before that meeting I had no idea this field of study existed. That next semester, I officially switched my major and it became the perfect fit for me!

What do you want to do?

“What do you want to do?” is a BIG question to ask anyone, let alone 17-18 year olds who have probably spent the majority of their lives following a well-paved path from kindergarten and elementary to middle school and high school. On top of that, there is so much that goes into choosing a career path and major. Knowing what I know now, I wish I would have considered:

What I’m good at
What I enjoy
How I approach things
What is important to me

At the Know You Project, we value working with students as they prepare for the transition of high school to college, college to career, or anything else in between. We don’t have a secret formula or a crystal ball that predicts the future. But we do have tools and assessments that help our clients discover who they are so they are able to tackle life’s BIG questions.

To parents: We want to equip your child with knowledge and skills that they will use personally and professionally. If your child takes the time right now to discover who they are, we believe their path moving forward will become so much more meaningful and worthwhile.

To students: We would love to be a safe space where you can process who you are, how you’re wired, and what that all means for your future. The truth is there are so many amazing career options. But the reality is not all of them would be a good fit. It comes down to figuring out who you are and how to apply that to what you can do in order to discover the BEST option.

After all, the world needs biochemists to study the next breakthroughs in cancer research. But it also needs science teachers, speech pathologists, social workers, and software developers. The options are endless, so let’s get started.