DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU WANT?
Several years ago I found myself standing before a class of high school seniors in Cape May, on the Jersey shore, in the United States. I had been invited to speak to them about life beyond high school graduation, but I found myself more interested in what they might have to say than in what their teachers thought they needed to hear.
I began by asking them how long it would be until they graduated. In a burst of excitement and energy, they replied in unison, “Eleven days.”
What I really wanted was to enter into the unbounded territories of the hopes and dreams these young men and women held about their future. There were eighty-four students before me that morning, representatives of the future. I was curious. I wanted to know what they yearned for. I wanted to be invited into their hearts and minds.
I invited myself by asking, “What do you want from life?”
For a few moments there was silence. Then, as they realized that my question was not rhetorical, a young man called out, “I want to be rich.” I asked him why he wanted to be rich. “So I can do whatever I want,” was his reply. I asked him how much was enough. “A million dollars,” he said, and I remember wondering how many people think that a million dollars will change their lives.
Then I raised the question again.
A young woman said she wanted to be a doctor. I asked her why. “So that I can help people, relieve suffering, and make a lot of money,” she replied. I wished her well and hxoped she would be able to keep her reasons in that order as the years passed.
I asked the question again: “What else do you want from life?”
A young man toward the back called out, “I want a beautiful wife.” His friends giggled, and I asked him if he had been successful in locating one yet. He said that he hadn’t, and I sympathized with him, explaining that I had not, either.
Then I asked him if he knew what he was looking for in a woman. He said he did. So I explained that the best way to attract that kind of person was to become that kind of person.
I asked the question again: “What else do you want from life?”
This time a young man with a firm and confident voice said, “The president. I want to be the president of the United States of America.”
I then proceeded to ask him how he intended to achieve this goal. He unfolded for me and his fellow students a plan that included undergraduate studies in international business and political science, followed by law school, local political campaign involveme
