Joel Hermosillo

9/22/22

Professor Scaife

Comp 1

An unknown future

Whenever I am asked, “What are your plans for the future” or something similar I

always respond with “I do not know.” Some people would look and not think about it

much and just let it be. Others would look at me in confusion like this should be

something I should have done already. They ask me about my interests and what I want

to be when I grow up. I respond with “I am not sure.” “Well, do you at least know what

you are interested in?” I reply with “Well I mean, building electronics sounds cool, other

than that not really.”

I am already a college student going into electrical and computer engineering,

and I still have no plans for my future after college. Mostly everyone I know already has

an idea of what they want to do when they finish college. I, however, cannot say the

same thing. Throughout my childhood, I never really thought about what I wanted to be

when I grew up. I was always engulfed in my childhood fantasies due to my habit of

watching sci-fi and superhero movies like Superman, Transformers, Iron man, etc.

Funny thing is that whenever I was asked what I wanted to be during my elementary

years, I would always give a non-realistic answer like “I want to be Iron man or

Superman.” Of course, since I was still a child, nobody paid attention or was concerned

about my response. Just a child living in a childish dream, that’s all. Even until middle

school, I still had this habit of creating and living in my world because to me, that was
more entertaining than living in this normal reality. Unlike my elementary counterpart, I

knew that I had to start thinking more critically and be more serious about what I wanted

to do with my life in the future. The problem is that I couldn’t. For whatever reason, I

was just not able to create a future position that I would find myself enjoying. I was good

at thinking about the future and how the world could change throughout the years, but I

was having trouble trying to see where I sat in that future. All I was able to do for myself,

was keep creating imaginary worlds and scenarios in my head and live in them.

Even in high school, I still couldn’t think of a satisfying position I see myself in the

future. There was at some point in high school that I had enough of thinking about my

future and overall, decided to just “go with the flow” and see where life takes me. With

no future to think about, my mind then went to do what it does best. Create imaginary

worlds, scenarios, fantasies, etc. With no future to think about, my imagination was what

I had on my mind most of the time. Mainly to help me escape the boredom that I have

towards this normal reality.

Most of the time, whenever I don’t have anything else on my mind or when I’m

not occupied with something, I would always create imaginary scenarios in my head to

help me out of boredom. Sometimes I even forget about the real world. One day, there

was a quote that I came across that even to this day, has an impact on my life. “A

person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses

touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions.”- Alan Watts.

This habit of mine did come with its downfalls though. I would always keep to

myself, and I would rarely socialize with others. By the end of my junior year of high

school, I was told that by that time, I should have already decided what I want to do
after high school. Unfortunately, I haven’t made my decision so I took the first half of

summer trying to figure out what to do after high school. Should I go to college? Should

I go and work after graduation? After a while of thinking to myself, I decided to go to

college, mainly because I thought it would be an easier decision. I would just have to

apply to a few colleges, and scholarships, and choose what career path I want to go in.

That was the most challenging part, I couldn’t think of any career I would see myself in

that I would fully enjoy.

I can see how others may think that this is weird considering how right now I’m

studying electrical and computer engineering, as everyone who had helped with my

college application, told me that my career should be something that I believe you enjoy

doing and studying about. When I first heard about electrical and computer engineering,

I thought of going into that career not because it was something I was interested in, but

because at that time I knew that as time moves on, more electrical and computer

engineers will be in high demand because of our evolving technology. I also picked it

because since this type of engineering is considered one of the more broad ones, I

thought that finding a job as an electrical and computer engineer should not be a

problem. They also do gain a lot of money.

Of course, this was not the only reason why I decided to do electrical and

computer engineering. I spent some time by myself, trying to remember any hints in my

life that would give me an idea that electrical and computer engineering is what I want to

do. The most I can think of is that when I was little, I always enjoyed movies where it

involved a lot of technology like Iron man, Transformers, etc. I even bought two motor

and engine kits for which I was given parts and I had to follow some instructions to build
them. However, I still felt as if I needed more than just what I did as a child to confirm if

this career was right for me. Then after a while, I thought that maybe it’ll be better if

there was anyone else who would agree with me. Someone whom I have known for my

entire life and most likely knows more about me than I do myself. Of course, the person

I chose to help me with my decision was my mother. I told her about my futureless

vision and about how others reacted to me telling them this, as well as what career I

believe I would be most interested in. After a little bit of brainstorming and recalling

memories, she also says that electrical and computer engineering would be a good

career for me to choose.

So in the end, I made my decision. I am gonna go to college to study electrical

and computer engineering, and see where I go from there. I haven’t been able to think

much about my life after college. Even now, I’m not sure if this career is the correct

choice for me. Right now, my mindset is focused on passing my classes, to keep

studying for this career, and hopefully one day, I would know what it is that I want to do

with my life after college.