It’s almost time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For me (and many other high school students) this means I’ll be badgered with the same questions I’ve been asked for the past few years. “Where are you going to go to college,” “Are you ready for your senior year to be over,” and, my personal favorite, “What do you want to study in college?”

I understand why family members ask these questions. They make for pretty good conversational pieces and they’re relevant to my whole family’s everyday life. Along with that, there are definitely other students my age who do happen to have everything planned out. However, it gets to the point where I legitimately consider announcing to the whole family right when we arrive exactly what my future intentions happen to be.

It’s almost stressful, actually. Like an ongoing reminder that I don’t know what I’m doing with my life and that there’s an ever-closer expiration date for me to make those crucial decisions. It’s nature’s cruel way of guiding students towards fear and irrational decisions. The truth is, many adults don’t know what they want to be. It’s always a relief to hear an aunt, uncle or grandparent jokingly quip, “I wish I knew what I want to be when I grow up!”

This year will be different, as it’s the last time I’ll ever be asked this series of questions and this time I actually know where I’m going to college (UNI) and I have a good idea what I’ll be studying, along with having a good answer to whether or not I’m excited for my senior year to be over with yet.

I guess my point is, family members will keep asking the same questions. Most students will keep answering with the same responses, and the cycle will keep repeating. Maybe the reason adults keep asking those same questions year after year is because they’re still searching for the answers themselves.