What I Want to Do with my Life, and some Reasoning.

I hear it at least once a week. The question has become something of a drumbeat in my head over the past half-year. "What are you going to do with your life?" "What are your plans?" "Where are you going?" "What are you doing?" These questions are asked by people for a valid reason: I am in Grade 12, and the time has indeed come when I need to think about these questions, and decide what I would like to do after school. But asking about my entire life is asking an impossible question. Up until now, I would have answered that I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I can't see where I am going to be in twenty years. I just don't know. What I have always had was interests. At a very young age, I took to writing. I have received several awards for my writing, and some adults have noticed it and talked to me about it. That is a talent. I also love acting. I believe I am talented there as well. I don't mind being in front of a large number of people, when many people would. That is a talent. That is a gift. I like music. I like to make music. That is also a talent, a gift. It is quite obvious that I am an arts type of person. But, from the opposite side, I also like computer programming, and computers in general. So what should I do with my life?

I have obviously been thinking a lot about this question over the past weeks and months. And I have made a decision, a subtle decision that I only became aware of this past week. I want to be an actor. I want to be a writer. I want to be a musician. I want to be a comedian. I want to be a poet. And I enjoy computers, and would like to be a computer programmer.

So what will I be? Where will I go?

My answer is that I will follow each and every one of these careers. I will do it all. I don't plan on having a long-term job, and if I do, it will be in computer programming. But it is my hope that these things, or a combination of them, will provide me with enough money that I can live. I will quite possibly never be rich. It is hard to be rich when you are in the arts. People don't like paying for ideas. I will, however, be enjoying my life every step of the way.

Isn't that more important than money?

The question I have been asked, and have often asked myself is, why are these jobs important? Why is a comedian important? Why is a writer important? Why is a musician important?

And I answer myself almost every time: what could possibly be more important than influencing, and bettering the lives of people?

I could better the lives of people in many ways. For instance, if I were to become a electrician, I would better peoples lives by solving electrical problems in their homes, in businesses, in cities. That job would be very useful. If I were to become an engineer, I could build a bridge that could help millions of people get from point A to point B. In an indirect way, I would be influencing those millions of people.

So why the arts? Why can't I influence people through a job that is sure to bring in cash?

My answer is that it is not enough for me to help people in these scientific ways. I want to help and influence people by nourishing their souls. I want to communicate to people in such a deep way that their lives are changed for the experience.

People say that being a comedian is a low job. I ask, why? Depression is, according to the UN, the single most common disease in the world. If I am making people laugh, helping people who may be troubled to, for a few moments at least, forget about their problems and love life again, why is that not the most important thing in the world?

The same goes for the rest. If I can help people to see a situation a different way through fiction, poetry, or music, if I can lift up their souls by helping them explore a part of themselves that is above this world, then that is the most important thing I could ever possibly do.

And so, after school I am almost certain I will go into university on an arts/theatre program. I will persue computer programming through smaller courses, or self-study. I may never be rich material-wise, but I will be doing what I believe I was put on this earth to do.