[heading size=”20″]The search for a purpose just might take a whole lifetime[/heading]
The son of a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and a Faris and history teacher, Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. In 1976, the Hosseini family was relocated to Paris by the Foreign Ministry. After the Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan, the Hosseinis sought asylum in the United States and moved to San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from Santa Clara University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and later earned a medical degree in 1993 from the University of California, San Diego. His first novel, The Kite Runner, became an international bestseller and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. This post’s quote of focus is from his third novel, And the Mountains Echoed, published in 2013.
[quote cite=”Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed, spoken by Nabi”]They say find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one that you never had in mind. [/quote] Come next fall, I may be majoring in journalism, but I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. I wouldn’t even be surprised if I change majors by the time I graduate. With college just around the corner, I sometimes feel pressured to have my life figured out, all the way down to the date I start my first job, but I’m only a high school student just barely understanding the mysteries of life.
Choose courses you’re actually interested in
Wouldn’t it be so much easier living life knowing what you’re supposed to do? If I had taken AP Calculus instead of Statistics only to find out the only math credit journalism majors need is statistics, I would’ve wasted a whole school year and the fee to take the AP exam. Similarly, if I end up majoring in business, I’d regret not taking Calculus in high school when it would’ve been a lot less stressful. While getting loads of college credit out of the way even you attend your first college lecture does save a lot of money and time, a single major change could potentially remove the financial benefits, as well as the boost you’d receive in waived classes. Choose a class for the content, not the college credit.
Life is hard as is; take it easy on yourself
The mainstream path of life seems easy enough: graduate from high school, graduate from college, get a job and earn enough money to live comfortably until you exit this world. But it’s not. I would highly recommend having at least a goal you’re working toward, but I also don’t believe it’s healthy for the soul to catch the train for a new dream right after jumping off the last dream. Don’t be ashamed to take a gap year or take a hiatus from time to time. They say life’s a journey. Don’t make it a race.
For the small things, listen to your mind. For the big things, listen to your heart
When deciding what time you should leave to catch a plane, use logic rather than feeling, but when you’re deciding whether to take a job offer in another city or stay with your family, use your heart. It’s no secret the heart tends to take an emotional approach and doesn’t always use logic for planning, but it’s a window our deepest thoughts peek out from. Oftentimes, our hearts know what we want before our mind even forms an inkling of an idea. Follow your heart, and slowly, your purpose will come to light.
Tonight at the course fair, incoming freshmen will have an opportunity to essentially “shop” for classes. Most courses will have booths set up and representatives on hand to give testimonials and answer questions. The freshmen, sophomores and juniors already have course request sheets and a booklet with all the courses CPS has for high school students. They say high school is a time to explore your options and capitalize on the free courses. Take these opportunities and focus on you. College credit and pleasing others is great, but make sure you’re building a life you’d want to live.
photo illustration by Alice Yu
[quote cite=”Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed, spoken by Nabi”]They say find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one that you never had in mind. [/quote] Come next fall, I may be majoring in journalism, but I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. I wouldn’t even be surprised if I change majors by the time I graduate. With college just around the corner, I sometimes feel pressured to have my life figured out, all the way down to the date I start my first job, but I’m only a high school student just barely understanding the mysteries of life.
Choose courses you’re actually interested in
Wouldn’t it be so much easier living life knowing what you’re supposed to do? If I had taken AP Calculus instead of Statistics only to find out the only math credit journalism majors need is statistics, I would’ve wasted a whole school year and the fee to take the AP exam. Similarly, if I end up majoring in business, I’d regret not taking Calculus in high school when it would’ve been a lot less stressful. While getting loads of college credit out of the way even you attend your first college lecture does save a lot of money and time, a single major change could potentially remove the financial benefits, as well as the boost you’d receive in waived classes. Choose a class for the content, not the college credit.
Life is hard as is; take it easy on yourself
The mainstream path of life seems easy enough: graduate from high school, graduate from college, get a job and earn enough money to live comfortably until you exit this world. But it’s not. I would highly recommend having at least a goal you’re working toward, but I also don’t believe it’s healthy for the soul to catch the train for a new dream right after jumping off the last dream. Don’t be ashamed to take a gap year or take a hiatus from time to time. They say life’s a journey. Don’t make it a race.
For the small things, listen to your mind. For the big things, listen to your heart
When deciding what time you should leave to catch a plane, use logic rather than feeling, but when you’re deciding whether to take a job offer in another city or stay with your family, use your heart. It’s no secret the heart tends to take an emotional approach and doesn’t always use logic for planning, but it’s a window our deepest thoughts peek out from. Oftentimes, our hearts know what we want before our mind even forms an inkling of an idea. Follow your heart, and slowly, your purpose will come to light.
Tonight at the course fair, incoming freshmen will have an opportunity to essentially “shop” for classes. Most courses will have booths set up and representatives on hand to give testimonials and answer questions. The freshmen, sophomores and juniors already have course request sheets and a booklet with all the courses CPS has for high school students. They say high school is a time to explore your options and capitalize on the free courses. Take these opportunities and focus on you. College credit and pleasing others is great, but make sure you’re building a life you’d want to live.
photo illustration by Alice Yu
Emily Oba • Jan 24, 2016 at 8:07 pm
I really liked this article. It relates to me a lot, not knowing what I’m going to do with my life. I think people would benefit from reading this, because it gives good advice and talks about not stressing and being kind to yourself. I love the message that this post gives, to build a life you want to live and focus on you more than pleasing others.