A sign warns of a fork in the road, with each road displaying a question mark at the end. Illustration by The Signal reporter Sarah Wylie.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost
I always cringed when people asked me about my career choice.
It started a couple of years before graduating high school. “So what are you going to be?” people asked. I imagine my eyes usually portrayed a silent cry for help, accompanied by the occasional audible yelp. How on earth was I expected to make such a grave, life-altering decision at such a young age? I envied all who were so sure of what they wanted to do with their lives.
As I entered college, I held on to hope that the right answer would magically come to me by the time I completed my basic courses – like a lightning bolt dividing the clouds, suddenly illuminating the right path in front of me.
It wasn’t so.
I felt very much like sitting in a restaurant, studying a menu so large that making a decision was presenting a near impossibility. While technology and advancements had decreased the number of hands-on jobs, humanity had now broken into a great, new territory that has spread globally and resulted in an overwhelming multitude of options. Choices, choices, choices. How ironically shackling this new generational freedom felt!
The Signal reporter Sarah Wylie.
When my parents, or even more so my grandparents, grew up, they were not faced with such a vast variety of options. The choice seemed simple, straightforward. Sure, grades always played a factor, as well as finances, talent and skill, but the number of realistic job opportunities was lucid. Once a job had been chosen, it was to be the career of a lifetime.
Although I eventually picked a major, I am still uncertain about what the future holds. I picked a road, but one that allows for some wiggle room. Today’s work world is not absolute. Many people find work outside of their chosen major, others within but with broadened responsibilities and a constant learning process.
We live in a different world. Jobs are rarely for life anymore and, even if they are, they require continuous learning and sometimes re-learning old methods in new ways. So, to Robert Frost I say this: the road we choose when we are 18 may not always be a one-way street, but rather a small part of a greater infrastructure that connects to the same destination in the end. How we get there may not matter as much as we think.
