How close did you complete the goals or dreams you had made when you were in high school?

I have everything I ever wanted.

My life was total shit for most of highschool.

I’m doing mostly well now. Much better than my conception of what I would become was in highschool. I’m not at my ideal though.

That is a very good question. I guess I am about 50% of where I wanted to be by now. But hey, life hasn’t been exactly the way I wanted it either. The economy is crap, hard to find a job. But that is just part of my life long learning experience, plus I have had to make many changes on the goals and dreams that I had before. They just weren’t realistic at the time.
But since I am still young, who knows, I just might try to get those goals.

I had unrealistic dreams then.

I was a band director and good at that. So I made it.

I’d say ~50% career-wise. 10% relationship-wise. But some of my goals have changed since I was 16. But a person has to leave themselves open. As you get older, things are supposed to change and that’s OK. You can’t keep a 16 year old’s mentality for the rest of your life.

I never even knew the job I have existed. A universe away from what I thought I would do.

I have wanted to be an artist or a veterinarian since I was a little girl.Now,.I am an artist that is inspired by nature ;)

I changed them (I decided on something different).

0%. I expected to graduate from college, get a job in whatever field it was that I majored in, and meet the man of my dreams there. None of it happened.

Almost 30 years later, I’ve experienced a wonderful career with the same company for 24 years, lived in and visited cities that I never would have imagined I would, and have met many fascinating people, including my fiancé.

I never had any set goals, although somewhere along the line i thought i wanted to be a vet….but now i’m doing something that i NEVER thought i’d be doing (owner of barbershops and hairsalon) considering that i got a law degree after school.

I am not doing anything I thought I wanted in high school. In high school, I had planned to become a dolphin/whale trainer. I was accepted to my first choice college and the program they had for that, but I gave it up. I didn’t have any plans of getting married or having kids back then.

I had it. Then I lost it.

I’m doing just what I wanted, I don’t have as much money as I had planned on, but it’s ok.

I can’t remember what I wanted back then other than to graduate and get a job. I did. The end.

close

Very close. I had wanted to be a paid artist since childhood but didn’t have a medium I could envision supporting that. Yes, I drew, painted and sculpted but needed an idea of what exactly would pay since my parents had always told me to find “something else”.

Once I got into college then I took a metal welding class that sealed the deal. I would put myself to work as a designer of jewelry. While in those classes then I met my future-ex-husband and we went on to build a design and fabrication business from just friends, family and word of mouth. A few years in a we got a shot at being given a contract with a major high end dept. store which was like a dream come true for me. It didn’t happen but not because we weren’t good enough and that’s always fueled me to want to return and give it another go.

My goal in high school was to prove that simple one-celled organisms could exist on Mars. I made a science project. I then became the “crazy Martian cheerleading chick.” My friends laughed at me. I grew cultures in a reproduction of the Martian atmosphere. They told me that I was crazy. I still won a prize. But no one understood what I was doing. This past year, scientists found water on Mars. They say that microbial life probably does exist there. I felt fantastic.

Not everything I dreamt of has come true….but I’ve had the most amazing adventurous life…I’ve travelled, I’ve loved passionately, I’ve broken away from a very patriarchal upbringing and forged a new path so that my daughter could walk it untrammelled by archaic tradition. I’ve kissed the Wailing Wall and kissed a kangaroo. I’ve been hugged by saints and hugged a few sinners. It’s not at all been the life I imagined for myself. It’s been better. It’s probably also been more painful, too. But the strength and vision I have acquired is extensive. My inner life was totally unformed in high school and now it is rich and fulfilling. I’ve studied with some great spiritual teachers. I’ve been blessed.

And to think….I have a lot more to go….:)

I didn’t have any very definitive goals for the future when I was in high school, besides attending and graduating from college. I do think that my high school self would be proud of my current 34 year old self, though.