You Do Know What You Want to Do with Your Life

Throughout middle school and into high school, I was the spitting image of Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) in that one scene from High School Musical 3: Senior Year. I know you know what I’m talking about.

Okay, so, my chaines turns were performed with pin-straight legs and pointe shoes, but you get the idea. Nobody outdoes Troy Bolton in the teen angst department.

Truth be told, I’d seen this movie only once before last weekend, when my younger brother and I decided to give it a watch for old time’s sake. At that point, I couldn’t recall much about the plot but was 99% sure I hadn’t enjoyed it in elementary school. In other words: I didn’t expect to have any sort of deep and lasting connection to this movie a full decade after its release.

But HSM 3 is strangely fascinating. The entire theme of the movie went straight over my head when I watched it in the third grade, but now that I’ve actually been a senior in high school, some of the quotes/songs really got to me. I wanted to cry a couple of times. It was a weird sensation. I’m honestly curious to know if anyone else has watched this movie after graduation and enjoyed it more than they did when they were within range of its target audience. I mean, seriously. It was kind of unfair to expect an audience of ten-year-olds to empathize with high school seniors as they try to navigate graduation and everything that comes with it.

The most accurate part of HSM 3 is the aforementioned scene in which Zac Efron sang “Scream” like his life depended on it. It was that scene that inspired this blog post, which is already longer than I intended it to be. Whoops.

“Scream” sums up how I felt about my future from the time I entered middle school to my junior year of high school. I had a long list of things I wanted for my life, an overwhelming number of possibilities. All I had to do was choose a path and start running. To my third-grade self, that path looked fairly straight. From the viewpoint of my 17-year-old self, there was an infinite number of things along the path to dread and to fear.

I wanted to own my dreams, to make them real. To find the path of least resistance and run toward a future that was waiting for me with open arms. I’ve never believed that life should be a struggle, and these thoughts were the epitome of that belief. And heck, yes, I screamed about it. All the time. If you’ve never screamed into a pillow until you lost your voice… you must be some sort of angel. Teach me your ways.

All of that being said, the point of this blog post is actually very simple.

Today, when people tell me, “I don’t know what I want to do with my life,” I smile and politely disagree. You do know what you want to do with your life. I know because I used to tell people the same thing. That was before I asked myself a ridiculously easy question. Allow me to paint you a picture.

You’ve been cursed to work every day for the rest of your life without pay. You can choose any career path you’d like, and you can change career paths at any time, but you have to work every day. And you have to do it for free.

This isn’t ideal, but since it’s the way things are, you decide to make the best of it. If you have to work for free, you’re going to be sure you’re working on something you love.

That thing you just thought of? That’s “what you want to do with your life.”

And if, one day, you change your mind, what part of that decision would pose a problem? Are you not on this earth to enjoy every moment? Are you not here to experience humanity and all of its beauty, and passion, and fun?

Why are we so attached to the idea that “making a life” means “making sacrifices?” Why is dedicating your life to something that makes you happy so scary? Of all the scary things in the world, your dreams shouldn’t even rank. You are too powerful to allow the currents of the earth to toss you around. Your soul is too deep to avoid empathizing with yourself.

When I thought about life like this, I suddenly had an answer for people.

“I want to tell stories. I want to write books and dance and get married and be a mom.” Even if I never saw a dime.

Friend, you do know what you want to do with your life.

I believe in you… but that’s not what you need.

When all you want to do is scream, go for it. But never stop believing in yourself and your dreams. I know you know what they are.