What do you want to be when you grow up?
We've all heard this question waaaaaayyy too many times. Yet, we've always answered differently whenever someone asked.
A few days ago, a very kind woman named Susan Galer from SAP has asked me this common yet, very challenging question; "What do you want to do in the future?" How was I supposed to know? I was only attending high school as a freshmen and I would rather be texting my amazing friends after school for the next 10 years of my life, right? Wrong. We all come to a point in life where we get hit with the same question we hear almost endlessly and soon we realize that our answer means everything.
And so I answered her; "I want to be a CEO." Those words struck me. As I was growing up, I've wanted to be a pop star, a dancer, a comedian, an artist, a musician, a vet, and now, I suddenly wanted to be a CEO? So, what was it that really struck me about this question? Was it the fact that I was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of businesswomen and men in a giant professional environment, or was it the effects of growing up and being serious? It was both.
Talking to Susan Galer had really untangled a few strings knotted together. She sat down with us and pressed the button on the recorder and began asking us questions about ourselves, our school, and what it was like, and what ambitions we wanted to achieve. In all honesty, I never would have thought I'd be attending a high school such as BTECH. Who would have thought I'd go after business, or even technology? Than I started to wonder, what do I want?
Growing up has very little to do with your ambitions. Its just a certain matter of time till you realize what you really want to do. Talking about it will be the best thing for you if you want to separate your interests with your actual ambitions.
So, what did you learn?
I learned that in order for someone to discover what they really want to achieve in life, they must be willing to sit down, talk with others and think to themselves; "Okay, so what do I really want to do in life?" Of course, anybody can get a job.. SAP offers fantastic opportunities already, and having them as a partner for your school is definitely a bonus! But just talk to another professional such as Susan Galer and SAP and all of it's fantastic partners and listen to them on how they have decided what they wanted to do when they became older. Trust me, talking to Susan Galer was the most significant experience in my time at SAP's Sapphire NOW because her questions have really got me thinking about what I really wanted to achieve in the future and what it really was that I felt passionate about in achieving.
