Whatever you choose to "do" with your life, always remember that the opportunity of having had a choice is a luxury and a privilege. If your life turns out to be anything like mine, you'll get a decent education - but you won't really begin to learn the important things about life until you take it upon yourself to seek them out. Just remember that such learning can take place in a classroom, so don't take this as license to blow off your studies! And just so you won't get the wrong impression - when it comes to the "important things in life," please don't think that there are answers out there waiting to be found, a path already blazed, an eternal truth revealed. In a sense there are some such paths and ready-made answers - but they are merely academic until you experience them, until you discover them, and others, for yourself.
With luck, you'll stumble upon golden opportunities to find out what you're good at, what interests you ... what you want to "do with your life." If you're anything like me, you'll probably bumble a few of these - but that is alright. Perhaps those unexplored paths would have turned out to be dead ends - alternative lives better left unlived, or perhaps for another. It's also likely that other chance opportunities will divert you from one path to another. All to the good. Follow wherever the sum of your mind, heart and soul lead.
Before I continue on the topic, I have an important diversion to share with you ... If I had not bungled a few of my earlier opportunities, then there would be no you. There would almost certainly have been a child with whom I would have shared letters such as these - a child I would have loved no less - but it wouldn't have been you. This was the same thought I had very early in life - if my mom and dad hadn't had me, then ... what about me? Would I just have been out there, floating somewhere in the ether, in space? - I remember thinking on my bed, in the old house. It puzzled me about as much as a young boy ought to wonder. I know now that if I'd not been conceived by precisely my mother and father at precisely the time I had been, and if a million other things didn't work out just as they had, then I wouldn't be me. There are an infinity of lives to be lived - a fact that in no way devalues the uniqueness and worth of your own life, son. Indeed, knowledge of this should make living even more special - you're the only person who's ever going to live your life. There are no other yous out there floating, waiting to be born, waiting for their chance. Carpe diem!
And as for navigating those necessary failures and chance opportunities and figuring our what "to do" with your life ... I'll leave that entirely up to you. What? You thought I'd have sage advise on potentially lucrative emerging industries (one word - "plastics") or moving words on how to save the world from itself? Well, I'm not giving all of the answers away for free! But I do want you to know that the work you choose should help to make others' lives better, and certainly not worse. Also, while starting out, it's useful to know that it is possible to do good for the world while doing well for yourself. Since you won't be getting an inheritance, I suggest find a career that does.
And one last parting word on the subject ...
Remember - when we speak of a path in life - it is metaphorical. An actual path on Earth implies a beginning, middle, end -- starting and ending points. Don't think of your life in such terms. You came into existence at a distinct point in time. One day you will no longer exists except in memories, however recorded. Connecting these two points in time is the metaphorical path we're calling life. Just don't think it has to be all that straight and narrow - and certainly not all "work." A few purposeful detours - a deviation or diversion, even - might well lead you to what you'll decide is you life's work ... and maybe even your own little world of life and love, besides.
