My neighbour, Eric, wanted to be a caterpillar, my brother was going to the NHL, and I was going to write a million-dollar book series. Then we turned 12. We grew out of the naivety that is childhood. Our lofty aspirations were met with laughter and condescension. We were taught the concept of reality, and brought down to Earth. Middle school came along and the caterpillar turned into a business man, the hockey player a lawyer, and the author wrote heartbreaking tales of broken dreams. I watched the light burn out of my friends' eyes as expectations of money as success rerouted their dreams. These alternate paths may not have aligned with their unique passions, but align they did with society's understanding of success. The checklist is linear: go to law or business school, land the job, meet the boy, get a house, and a nice one at that, buy a car, buy two cars, have kids, and set them up to check the same societal expectations off of their own list.

To say I don't want these things for my future would not be the truth, but I am willing to work hard on the road less travelled to arrive there. Society pretends to be accepting of non-conventional paths. If this was the case, my best friend wouldn't be embarrassed to admit that she wants to be an actress in a school full of aspiring investment bankers.

To me, success means waking up every morning excited to start the day because I love what I do. Why would I spend my life doing something other than what I am passionate about? It didn't make sense to me: the fifteen year old with her whole life ahead of her wanted to be an accountant. With no previous interest or experience in business, or even a business course under her belt, did she know what that profession entails? Or had she been brainwashed by society's checklist, confident that this career path would allow her to tick all of the boxes? Not to say that an accountant is not a reputable profession, or that some people may truly be passionate for and aspire to do this, but in our society, nine times out of ten this kind of path is chosen for the wrong reasons. It breaks my heart to see people forfeit their aspirations for this societal safety net; too afraid of failure to chase after what they love.

I don't know exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I refuse to choose a route because it promises 'check-marks'. I plan to explore and experiment until I find what makes my heart race. I won’t become the woman who snoozes her alarm clock for the umpteenth time, dreading that cubicle, day after day. What’s going to get you out of bed?