June 11th 2010 officially marked the five year anniversary of my graduating from high school alongside my best friends.

Amongst a whole lot of other projects this summer, one of the big ones is ‘class reunion‘.

Chances are high that it will get cancelled (people are quarrelling about the date) and chances are even higher that I‘ll be off to London, Berlin or Rome or to see bands at the Area 4 festival (and come on – it‘s Blink-182 and Placebo!), if they don‘t stick to the September date.
If I am around however, I‘ll be happy to join in the fun and to hear what everyone else has been up to. Surely, not half of the people will be doing what they imagined themselves to be involved with five years in the future.

I didn‘t imagine I‘d study theology, let alone become a priest at all.

Not too long ago, when I was having breakfast with one of my above mentioned long-standing high school friends, she was telling me about her younger sister graduating this summer and how her sister had no idea what to do with her future – or rather: a lot of ideas but no definite plan.

And don‘t we all know that feeling?

I clearly remember being her shoes; reading up on different courses and realising that some were simply out of my league, how a lot of them sounded more tedious than the job they were supposed to prepare you for.

Eventually, I compromised and chose to study one thing I really loved and made my second subject (Latin at the time) something quite unusual. And of course, that didn‘t work out!

How do you know then what could be the perfect career for you?

“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.” – Charles F. Kettering

First of all, you need to determine your talents and interests.

Stop! Don‘t say you have none because everyone does!

Maybe you‘re good at sports, or interpreting poems? Or you‘re amazing at science?
Sometimes, your own talents aren‘t quite so obvious to you.

Then ask your friends: maybe they all consider you a great listener and advice-giver and you just didn‘t know yet? Or they think you have a wicked way with words and consider you an excellent writer?

In any case, write a list and try to group those different qualities.

Now it is up to you to decide what you might find most interesting and fun to be doing and what you can imagine doing daily for a little while longer than a few weeks.

My personal view is that you‘ll never know until you gain first-hand experience. Internships seems awfully time-consuming and pointless, if you are ordered to stay put at the photocopy machine or end up brewing coffee all day but they they can be exciting and eye-opening just as well.

So far, I‘ve done three internships myself and each one taught me a valuable lesson and not only about the job but about life as well.

The first one was in year 10 in high school and at the time, I wanted to become a make up artist at the theaters and film studios of the world. Sadly, the local theaters were all unwilling to let a high school student into their houses, so eventually I did the next best thing and spent two weeks at a local, modern hair salon.

What is the general image of hair dressers in other countries? Over here, they‘re pegged as slightly naive chatterboxes who don‘t know a thing or two. However, in their job, they deal an awful lot with chemicals, mixing hair dye and perm lotion. It‘s actually quite difficult to mix hair dye and not creating a lotion that‘ll kill people‘s hair. It is also one of the most creative jobs.

Not only did I learn a whole lot about dyeing, cutting and styling hair, I also redecorated the shop window a couple of times and learned about taking stock.

Needless to say, for the next couple of months, I was toying with the idea of becoming a hair dresser.

And then it all changed and I fell in love with the English language. Travelling the world was on my agenda and my mother suggested it would be great to be working in the hospitality business and knowing my way around hotels. So she pressured me into spending the next three weeks as an intern at a local hotel.

I did learn a whole lot about waitressing, serving food and making beds in one minute. And I did wash up a whole lot of dishes and polished cutlery but beyond that, I didn‘t do much.

The entire three weeks (during which I actually took part of my driving test), I was misrable and crying each night about how I wouldn‘t go back in the morning. Off course, I went back each day until my time was up.

What I learned from that experience?

You always serve people from the right side and you cannot be happy in a job if you do what is expected of you rather than what you‘d love to be doing.

How I ended up part-timing as a waitress now is beyond me but it is more fun than my time at the dreadful hotel.

Those two internships I did when I was still in school. They were amazingly eye-opening: Working with people (co-workers and customers) isn‘t always the same – but I knew I‘d always want to work with people and be sociable.

Maybe you‘re like me though, and at the end of it, you still cannot decide what to do. As I said: I went for a compromise and I didn‘t like that either.

Looking back now, I have to admit that the option of taking a ,gap year‘ after high school sounds promising and like a good idea.
I know a whole lot of people are against them and think ,gap year‘ doesn‘t look good as one of the items on your CV but really, you never quite get the chance to dabble in all sorts of different things at any other point in your life.

I didn‘t get to do a ,gap year‘. My parents were, and still are, intent on me finishing my academic career and education quite quickly. I started university in the fall of 2005.

Now it becomes apparent that taking a break after school wouldn‘t have been quite so much of a waste of time than studying one thing for four years and realizing in your final year that it‘s just not what you want to do.

A gap year could fit 8 to 12 awesome month-long internships in different areas of your interests. It could fit in exploring the country you might want to immigrate to and see if it really could happen.

There are just so many possibilities not to waste time!

Let me tell you one thing though: A whole lot of people don‘t end up doing what they decide on those few months after school. Your mind is preoccupied with other things: Your friends moving away, not seeing them everyday anymore. Your daily routine gets broke up and just everyone wants to know what you‘re going to do with your future! It‘s a confusing time.

It is okay to realise that the thing you decided on doing when you were 19 is just not what you can picture yourself doing forever and a day in your mid-twenties.

When I decided to swap Latin for Theology and then went to prepare my study trip abroad for English, I didn‘t think that working in a church would completely alter my life. I didn‘t even picture the church being one of the places I‘d find myself to be comfortable in, but alas! It happened and here we go.

At 23, I decided that no matter what you want to do in life, you have to stand behind it and believe in it, even if no one else backs you up. There might be people who won‘t approve of your plans – there will always be! – but it is not them who live your life. It is you who has to attend the necessary classes and who has to go into work day after day.

Wouldn‘t you rather do something you love and be good at it than be stuck feeling miserable at work each day?

It took me five years to realise but eventually, here‘s what I decided for myself: It doesn‘t matter how much money you make or how high you can climb up on the social ladder depending on your job – you can only ever be good and at your best in anything if you love what you‘re doing!