7up video - part 1

I can't say I remember what I wanted to be when I was 7 years old. However I do know all during middle school and high school I wanted to become a doctor. I wanted to go into the science/medical field right up until February of my grade 12 year when I changed my mind and decided I wanted to be a french teacher. These are two completely different and opposite things. I'm extremely happy now that I made the decision that I did because I can no longer even imagine myself as a doctor.

When we're 7 we have hardly experienced anything in our lives. I can't imagine deciding my path through life at that young of an age. It will be interesting to see where the kids in the video ended up and whether or not they stuck to the path they believed they would follow when they were 7. I would say most people change their minds several times about what they want to be throughout their schooling years, and even afterwards. Some people go to college or university, go out into the work force and realize they want to do something else and go back to school. We are very lucky in our society that we have the opportunity to do so and it is not seen as something completely wrong or weird. In the UK model and I suppose what actually occurs there, by age 11 they are put into a stream of schooling which will either allow them to go to university or not. I think if this happened to me I would have been allowed to go to university. However I know many people who don't start getting their act together until school becomes more serious in high school. Therefore these people would have missed out on their opportunity to have a better education and pursue a career they really wanted to do.

How much of what we are like when we're 7 sticks with us until we're 30 or 40 or 50? I think quite a bit does but I believe there is a lot of opportunity for change and many events that can occur throughout our lives that change who we are. For example some people might be in an accident, or have a significant other pass away, or win the lottery, or go bankrupt, and that is not something we can predict when we are young. However it will most definitely have an impact on the person we are and the person we will become after the fact.

I just think we still have a lot of growing to do. Even now, I'm 22, and I don't feel like I have experienced all that much. Is the person I am today the person I will still be when I'm 50? I have no idea!