Member-only story
What to become when you don’t know what to become
.. and why is it so hard to say, “I don’t know?”
We’d just finished our final exams and everyone was excited to have finally completed those long Undergraduate years. A group of friends and I huddled at the entrance to our architecture studio chatting and having fun, when one of us asked the question,
“So what next? What do you guys see yourselves doing after now?”
In that moment of excitement, happiness and relief, I was set aback by this serious question. Others seemed perturbed by this question too as the hearty banter dimmed. One after the other, each person told the rest of the group their dreams.
When it got to me, I was silent.
I had no dream.
You are never serious
Finally, in a half-joking, half-serious manner, I told them that I wanted to become a pro-golfer. Everyone burst out laughing. “You are never serious”, they said. I knew I was serious. I knew that at that moment, I didn’t know what I wanted to become, and I didn’t know how to tell them this — since everyone else seemed to have theirs figured…
