Frankly, I was both puzzled and amazed by fellow classmates in high school who seemed to know precisely what career path they wanted. My friend, John, was totally certain, at the ripe age of 16, he wanted to be an electrical engineer. Stranger still, he actually became one. Carmen decided at the same age that she wanted to get into biological research. She did. I know of many other examples. Still, I can't for the life of me understand how these people could be so certain of their career paths so early on. (By the way, it didn't seem to be a matter of following in their parents' footsteps. These fields were very different from the ones their parents chose.)

I can remember my thoughts at the time. I was only sure of one thing: I couldn't picture myself walking through the same door to the same workplace for twenty years.

Did the way my life turned out surprise anyone? Perhaps. I think I've probably surpassed many people's estimation of my degree of underachievement (albeit, an inaccurate term by my standards.)