Teenagers Struggle When They Dont Know Thier Interests

When I talk to high school kids, there's a pattern I see constantly: They don't know what they're interested in. Point blank. Maybe they like sports, but not seriously. Beyond that, not much else.

Not every kid. Nothing's absolute. But a lot of high schoolers are stunted this way, and it could be for any number of reasons. Too much time scrolling. Too much time gaming. Or parents working hard just to put food on the table, without the bandwidth to expose their kid to different experiences. Could be anything, really.

Here's why it matters so much: If you don't know what you're interested in, every decision after high school gets harder. 

I see it all the time with high school athletes. They say they want to major in sports management. Fine. But did you grow up wanting that, or is it just the only thing you know because sports are the only thing you've ever been interested in? Do you actually know anyone who works in that field? When you're a junior or senior checking boxes on an application, are you actually interested in liberal arts, or are you just checking a box? These are rhetorical questions that don’t need to be answered, but the point remains that planning for college gets so much easier once you truly know what you want to do there.

So a parent's top priority should be helping their kid figure out what they're actually interested in. The way you do that is exposure to as many experiences as possible. There's no magic number, there’s no one right way. You just have to follow the trail.

Why does this matter more than almost anything else? Because the old adage is boring but it's true: If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. Would you rather your kid make $100,000 doing something that drains them, that's bad for their mental health? Or make $50,000 doing something that energizes them, pours back into them in a way they actually love?

You already know the answer.

-SL