What do you want to be when you grow up?

Many are familiar with this question. Perhaps it was the prompt of an essay in elementary school, perhaps just a throwaway question you got from relatives. But as students enter the formidable realm of high school, they are hit with the realization that the “real world” described to them in detail by the adults in their lives is closer than ever before, and so the question weighs far more heavily on their minds. 

Now, it is not simply a conversation starter. When somebody asks it, it feels as though you, a mere high school student, should already have planned your entire future. For so long, we spent our lives as children, with the certainty that everything would turn out in our favor; in the blink of an eye, we are faced with the responsibilities of an adult. And so begins the frenzied scramble to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life, the countless bouts of anxiety that suddenly hit you in the middle of the night when you’re trying to sleep, reminding you that your whole future lies ahead of you, and the path rests solely in your hands. 

Someday, and far sooner than you might realize, you will be one of the very grown-ups you envied as a child, with all the freedoms you ever wanted; but you will also have the responsibilities of an adult. When you’re a kid, adulthood can look easy, but enjoying the many freedoms of adulthood requires a level of time and effort never asked of you before. It is exciting, yet terrifying.

Nowadays, most colleges ask that you declare your major when you enter; although it can be changed later, the prospect feels daunting. How can you be expected to decide everything so soon? What if you make a decision you later regret? With how competitive schools have become, many question whether they’ll be accepted at all, and even if they are, will they be able to afford it? What if they take out a student loan, only for their degree to prove meaningless to employers anyway, leaving them with a mountain of debt and no foreseeable way to pay it off?

Although these feelings are somewhat universal, they can sometimes leave non-Americans baffled. Not because we have to decide our futures so early—that aspect is scary no matter where someone lives—but actually quite the opposite. High schoolers in America don’t know what they want to do before college.

My grandfather is a professor, and he maintains that eighteen is simply too young to know what you want to do; expecting students of that age to make such a difficult decision is utterly ridiculous. When I went to Germany over the summer, however, this sentiment was hardly the dominant one. It is somewhat common, or at least it used to be, for American college students to decide in college what they wanted to focus on. Once someone has taken a few classes, they will likely have a better idea of what interests them, and what jobs seem like a viable option. This way, they can make a more informed decision. 

European schools, on the other hand, do not typically operate this way. I knew from my uncle, who is Belgian, that some European nations will put their students into different “tracks” depending on their academic performance in primary school. As it turns out, Germany is one of those nations. Essentially, at around sixth grade, the school will analyze students’ performance, and depending on a variety of factors, they will be placed in a secondary school meant for pursuing an educational career or a trade. 

There are downsides to this system, if you ask my uncle. Students don’t necessarily get a choice, and their future is heavily dependent on their performance as a child. If someone dreams of pursuing an academic career, there is little possibility of working hard and pursuing that dream—he will be stuck in a vocational track. In the United States, which values individualism above all else, people are meant to decide themselves what they want to do with their lives, as long as they prove capable. Additionally, for American children, performance in elementary school largely does not matter outside of establishing good habits and study skills. In Germany, there is less choice, but then again, students will leave secondary schools—which are like our high schools—with a much more concrete answer to the daunting question of what they want to do when they grow up. It may be different, but perhaps the United States could learn a thing or two from its peers.

On my trip to Germany, I had to stay with a family for four days, and for two of those four days, I got the privilege of attending a German school for myself. There were many notable differences. This school started later, for one; we had time to go to a bakery before school started. Additionally, the school was open campus; we walked to the same bakery during breaks—and yes, there were multiple. Instead of one lunch in the middle of the day, there was a significant amount of free time in between each period. There were not six periods either, but rather two. Students still have to take around six classes, but the specific classes they attend each day will depend on what day it is. On Monday, for example, I only had to attend English and math class. In these ways, this school operated more like a college, even though we were all around sixteen years old. 

Aside from more freedom and less rigid schedules, the classes were also clearly tied to a main subject, and the school even required students to partake in internships. The classes I attended were geared toward business. In English class, for example, we learned how to write a business letter. By the time students are done with this secondary school, they know what they want to do, and they’ve already become familiar with the subject. Although we were all around the same age, my German peers had a clear trajectory ahead of them. Of course, however, nothing is perfect. Students may be better prepared for their future in some ways, but they are left with little choice. Students may have more flexible schedules, but that makes for less time with each subject overall. And although they may get more frequent breaks throughout the day, their mere few weeks off in the month of July is a poor excuse for a summer break.

It may seem unrealistic that you should be expected to make such life-altering decisions when you still feel so young. Time is flying by, and that’s scary. But it’s also true that we have the ability to forge our own path, and to set ourselves up for success. If we work hard enough, we can achieve great things, and although that idea may sometimes weigh far too heavily on our shoulders, or sometimes our minds, it should also give us hope. These new fears can instead mark the beginning of a new chapter rather than the end of an old one.