Where’s My Next Step?

I originally wrote this in response to an excellent Brazen Careerist article written by Marie, where she talked about her misgivings about life after school – without the structure, textbooks, and A’s all letting her know she’s on the right track. Here’s what I shared (with a few additions):

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Life felt like such a linear progression through the first twenty-one years of life (for those who do the straight-through-college route). You just kept climbing stairs because that’s what you were supposed to do.

But then someone said, “All right, you need to go explore Floor Seven now.”

“But wait, I’m climbing stairs.”

“No, get off the stairs and explore by yourself for a while.”

“No, you don’t get it. I don’t explore the floors. It’s dark in there and I won’t know where to go. I climb stairs.”

“No you don’t  get it. The stairs are over.”

And then all of the sudden you’re in some strange, ambiguous hall. No clearly articulated five-step plan, no textbook, no professor with a flashlight to shed light on all the answers any more. No just you and an endless amount of rooms.

And it’s a tad terrifying, if we’re honest. Because we might make some wrong turns. Because the exploring prods us to ask deeper (sometimes) painful questions, to get to a deeper (hopefully) legitimate truth of why we’re actually here and what we’re actually going to do with our lives.

Apparently there’s more to it than just the staircase.

Some won’t ever ask the questions. Some will say, ” just figure it out” as they keep climbing. But heck, I’d rather ask these questions now, then freak out, when I’m fifty, in some weird nexus between Floor Sixteen and Seventeen. I’d rather we wrestle with the ambiguity now, then when we reach the end of a long, staircase, that ended up taking us nowhere.

So here’s to those who can’t see the next step.

Here’s to those, as Professor Robert Quinn writes in Deep Change, are ready to get “lost with confidence”.

Here’s to those exploring Floor Seven. We might have no idea where we’re going in here, and I couldn’t be more excited/terrified.

I can honestly say now, I’m glad they kicked us off the stairs.