David Ferguson writes one of those articles that some folks won't "get" as parody/sarcasm. It starts like this…
I have always been a big proponent of following your heart and doing exactly what you want to do. It sounds so simple, right? But there are people who spend years — decades, even — trying to find a true sense of purpose for themselves. My advice? Just find the thing you enjoy doing more than anything else, your one true passion, and do it for the rest of your life on nights and weekends when you're exhausted and cranky and just want to go to bed.
To make a serious comment on an article that is non-serious, at least at face value: I was amazed at the number of friends I re-encountered at my 25th high school reunion who said things not unlike, "I'm just trying to decide what I want to do with my life." "I'm trying to get my shit together" was uttered by a few. A general rule of thumb is that if you don't have your shit together a quarter-century after you got out of high school, you're using the wrong sorting system.
I am not a big believer in the philosophy, "You can be anything you want to be in life." I didn't have the practical option to play for the Lakers, sing opera at Lincoln Center or ride the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby. I did have a range of realistic choices wherein I easily found something I did love to do. It was around age ten that Satan (you know: that guy who looks like Barack Obama) came to me and offered me the following deal: That I would become a professional writer and always earn a living at it but I would never be anything else. I have never regretted signing that one in blood. But the time to make those deals if at all possible is before you have to go out and get your first job.
I think one of the reasons more people don't figure out What They Want To Be When They Grow Up is that they think there's a much thicker catalog from which to pick than there is. Or their first choice is, like, President of the United States or Richest Person in the World or Hugh Jackman…and anything short of that seems like a sign of failure.
My father, as I've written on many occasions, hated his occupation. It was a job he took because he needed to pay rent and he told himself it was just until he found something better…but he stayed in it until he hit retirement age. Apart from his near-ideal marriage, the happiest thing in his life was that his son didn't make the same mistake. I've made most of the others but just out of dumb luck, not that one. Don't you.