This is Munster: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

For Habiba Ouyuon, senior, knowing what she wants to do in the future is less of a precise image, and more of a gut feeling. Leaving Munster to live in Texas and working in the dental hygiene field are all a part of her desire to reach beyond the life she is currently living.

“I want to help people out, and I like biology and anatomy,” Habiba said. “But I don’t want to support a (medical industry) where people who need actual help will die without medical care if they can’t pay for it. It doesn’t feel right to me to make money that way.”

Whether freshman, senior or in between for many students the stress of imagining themselves beyond high school is challenging enough, let alone their future in ten years time. For Lita Cleary, junior, her dreams of travel are jeopardized by fears of remaining restrictions from covid, or similar pandemics in the future. As Generation Z inherits a world reeling from natural disasters and crises, students are left fearful for what the future could look like. 

“The future of the world does not look good, in my opinion,” Lita said. “I think the generation before us messed it up, and they’re putting so much pressure on our generation to fix it. They have such high expectations that I don’t think it’s possible to reach it. Of course, there are some ideas of people cleaning the ocean and beaches, and that’s all great, but that’s only one small step we can do.”

Despite the uncertainty of the future, students like Charlie Mason, senior, do not allow its unpredictability to prevent their aspirations.

“I’ve got a big plan,” he said. “I hope to be a lawyer by (10 years time). I also want to have been elected to the House of Representatives.”

Even with goals to become a lawyer and congressmen, Charlie also accepts the precarious nature of the future as a fact of life. The unexpected, he says, is not just inevitable, but a positive aspect of growing.

“I think it’s safe to say that everything I just said is very likely to not happen, which I think is a good thing,” he said. “Not deciding my entire life before I’ve lived it. With everything so uncertain, especially now, I’m excited to see where it takes me. If there are any other unexpected events in the unforeseen future, I hope they aren’t terrible like the one we’re stuck in now, but I think it’d be nice to end up in a different place than I expected to be in.”