It should be required reading in high school!

There are probably some people who are mature enough in high school to make a decision that will affect them for the rest of their life. I certainly wasn’t.

I just drifted along; I was on “the college track” and I didn’t know any better. I went to Lehigh to become an engineer of some sort, and two years in decided I didn’t like that, spent the vast proportion of time at the college radio stations, and flunked out. I transferred to a small school and got a BA in Speech, and promptly got a minimum wage job in Keene, NH.

I’m sure my parents were aghast having spent all that money. (They paid for everything required, I paid for anything I wanted above that floor.) I didn’t really settle into “a career” until I was 30 or so, so “reading” something in high school would have been totally useless in terms of applicability. (Having the diploma allowed me entrance into the Executive ranks at Westinghouse; I’m sure I never would have gotten there without it even though it was irrelevant to the task.)

That’s why I encourage high schools to give the widest possible spray of knowledge in as many fields as possible, because “exposure” is probably the best juice for future citizens.

I watched a show on CSPAN last night, the guy said he changed major in his 3rd year in college, from a lucrative possible profession to “History’, and his friends assumed he would become a high school teach/slash/football coach or something. Instead, he runs the National Archives in Washington DC. I don’t know how much he makes or whatever, but he goes to work happy every day doing something he loves.

That’s a lesson I tried to instill in my nephew, who only wanted “a high paying job” even though he dislikes it. “Do something you love - and it’s not work” was my motto. It didn’t take.