As we approach the end of our senior year, what’s on everyone’s mind for the next four months is what will we do next? What will we decide to do next? Do we have a plan?

As this question circulates, we decided to ask a few of our very own audience members: the seniors, what are their choices for a career in college and branched off from there. The students replied with the following responses.

“Elementary education,” said Macie, a senior we interviewed outside her English class.

However, this seemed to be a common answer for some of the other female seniors as well.

Most of the seniors who plan to study Education stemmed their inspiration to the Childcare program here at the high school along with some experience with working with younger children outside of the high school.

“So, I took Childcare I and II here, and that made me like, really interested in working with children and then I did a voluntary thing where I went to Hillside and helped failing students,” said another senior, Krishna.

“I assist for a younger dance class and I also volunteered at Salem Elementary School, so I just love being around kids,” Kayla said in addition.

Out of the seven females that were interviewed a total of three shared their interest in working with kids. The rest have different interests that they wanted to further pursue in their lives.

One female whose name is Jillian told us how she wanted to pursue a career in Journalism, because the class inspired her along with the teacher teaching it. When asked about a minor she said “My terrible, horrible passion for film when I was like 8 years old making terrible videos on my dinosaur computer.”

“I’m really like undecided right now, it’s between like Criminal Justice and like Law,” exclaimed a senior we approached in the Media Center, Dorisa. When asked if her family inspired her decision to pursue these interests, she replied with a “Yeah.”

Jayden, another female senior, had a very different idea revolving around her future.

“Well I do want to go into like- I do want to go into like designing clothing line of some sort so I’d probably go into like business and marketing and see how that goes.”

Jayden clarified her response with the addition of an interest in a minor.

“I would say possibly because like marketing and stuff like that- like that will probably be my major but my minor would probably be something like in the music field. Like production area or something, yeah, I don’t know.”

This interest branched off of something that she said she loved ever since the beginning as a child. She explains that she has been a very creative person and that creativity is what she wanted to put into motion.

The last female we encountered told of her passion for nursing.

Katherin explained, “Because I want to help people, you know my dad had medical problems that he spent in the hospital for a good two days. When we had to pay out $2,000 for that overnight visit. He has to spend- we had to spend like $7,000-$8,000 paying them back for just going. It’s a lot. And in the future what I think we want to do is open up my own thing, you know what I’m saying?”

Katherin isn’t the only senior who had a career choice interest that was uncommon among the population we sampled.

Elliot, a male senior, presented an interest that was very unique and different.

“Wildlife Fisheries and Biology,” was what he replied with.

He added, “I spent a lot of time out in the woods when I was a kid, hiking, camping, stuff like that so, it’s just something I love and something I can see myself doing everyday.”

Despite his distinctive choice in career, his response is a familiar response among other seniors when talking about their inspirations.

Another male senior also described having an interest as a child that coordinated with his college major.

“It was always in the back of my mind since I was younger,” says Tim, who has an interest in Graphic Design that revolves around editing.

And some people have just recently confirmed their plans for the upcoming school year.

Brian first stated his plans. “Actually, it’s kind of a bit of both, my secondary choice right now is to get into the United States Military Academy by doing a gap year at Southwestern Oregon Community College all the way out in Oregon state.”

He followed up with the development of his plans with, “It’s probably been a thing that’s developed in the last year or two, I wouldn’t say it’s something I would want to do since I was younger. I had the idea of it like as freshman kind of. But in the last year or two it’s been really picking up speed.”

Other unique career choices from a male we interviewed included, “Political Science and either go into Diplomacy or Foreign Service or Communications like a chosen aspect of it.”

After prodding a little more about a possible minor, Christian, the interviewee said, “Minor? I don’t know, I was thinking if I’m going (into) the Foreign Service probably like International Relations and Econ or Political Science on the side. Something like that, I’m not sure yet.”

Christian’s response provides a little insight to the diversity of areas that some male seniors are choosing to head into for their futures.

Carlos, another senior, answering to the same inquiry, was unsure but expressed a strong interest in Sports Management.

“Just because it’s something that I enjoyed doing so might as well do a job I’m happy with everyday then just, you know, go to a job that pays well that I’m not happy with,” but he added with reassurance.

Unfortunately, not all the students we interviewed had the support or the opportunity to afford a secondary education choice.

One senior responded with the reason, “Just lack of money and, and I didn’t really do the college aid and all that stuff.”

Despite the lack of resources, he did express some interest if given the opportunity and funds provided to help him and said “Probably engineering.”

It’s safe to say that some of us have goals for the future that are set in stone while some of us maneuver between the main road and the road less traveled.

And maybe some of us are still in a maze with a wall blocking our every move; preventing us from walking a path that will lead us to our destination.

Wherever it may be, or whatever it is we’re doing, we will all eventually reach what we find pleasure in doing.

Tim casually said, “I just like- want to have my job, do what I want, do what I’m doing, hopefully.”