SNN Student Magazine - February 2002 - What are My Plans for the Future?

OPINION

What are My Plans for the Future?
By Alvin Cadonic, Grade 11,
Tec-Voc High School, Winnipeg, MB

I don't like thinking about the future. I enjoy living in the here and now and that's never going to change. I'll probably get into the world of broadcasting against the wishes of my parents who want me to live their dream rather than my own.

Before I decided that I wanted to go into broadcasting, I went through a lot of career choices. When I was five I wanted to be a super hero. That dream ended after I jumped off my garage roof and broke my arm. Again, I was five. Then I wanted to be a cop, but that ended when my dad yelled at me for it. He thinks cops are tools of the government. My mom wanted me to be a doctor but my dad said I just wasn't cut out to be a doctor. Plus I don't want to be responsible for someone's health. Slip of the knife, if you know what I mean?

I have asked some of my friends what they want to be and they don't know yet. As for me, I don't even know if I will enter the broadcasting industry. I might change my mind and become a journalist, or God forbid, a teacher; I hear that they get good vacation time.

Maybe I'll branch out into internet web design. I asked my neighbour Keith how he got into web design, and how he became the senior editor of the "C.F.L. Rocks" web page. He said that he loved football and wanted to play in the CFL but he was too fat to play. I asked his wife, Tammy, what she wanted to do. She said she wanted to become a nurse. I asked her why she didn't become a nurse and she replied so eloquently that she "got knocked up."

I envy my classmate Denny because she knows what she wants to do. She has a plan and from what I've heard and observed she has a good idea of how to go about reaching her goals. I don't have that luxury because I still haven't made a permanent decision regarding my future.

The way my parents see it, this is what will happen after high school. I'll go work at CKY Television for ten years until I get tired and decide to do something else. So I'll go to Red River College, take the teaching course, pay for it by freelancing, using the skills, experience and reputation I earned from working at CKY. I'll find time to get married, have the requisite 2.5 children and eventually I'll wind up teaching broadcasting at Tec all the while watching as my hair falls out. I'll get divorced, retire, and live out the rest of my life in an old folks home that my kids put me in, and that's where I'll die of a heart attack sitting on my toilet.

I don't want to follow a path that I, myself, have not chosen! I don't know what I'll do after high school, but one thing is for sure, I want to keep my options open because nobody, least of all me, can predict the future! So what the future holds remains to be seen. All I care about is whether or not I'm happy with the career I eventually choose.