Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Finding the “right” direction to start heading towards as a teenager is complicated. Different students at Samo have opened up to share their future plans as well as the fears they are undergoing to achieve their goals.While for some people predicting where they will be in 10 years is a total headache, for others, it’s the same as being asked what they had for lunch. This is common for seniors and juniors, as they are more mature and life-experienced as to have a more defined picture of their future. However, there’s always cases of freshmen and sophomores who surprisingly have their whole life planned from beginning to end, knowing every single thing they intend to do. What everyone agrees to, however, is that our current ideal picture of where we want to be rapidly changes as we discover unknown areas and/or meet influencing people.Ava Nickman (’20) has known her path is to be a doctor since age 10. In Ava’s case, her opinion has stayed unaltered, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere.“It’s hard to imagine myself in 10 years, but I hope to be in medical school somewhere in California. At a really young age, I already had this career path [in mind]. In my particular case, spending my life giving back and making an impact on people’s lives in some form or another is what really matters. In addition, being a doctor would provide me with a comfortable life while doing something I truly love.”Another student with an innate passion is Nikola Scuric (’19). His early enthusiasm towards the NBA arose when his dad gave him a huge NBA history book on the day of his seventh birthday.“In ten years, I'll be 26 years old, and I see myself working in the NBA one way or another. I'll possibly have a variety of jobs: Assistant Scout, Assistant General Manager, Scout, Scout For International Players or Assistant Director Of Player Personnel, all working my way up to my goal of being a General Manager of an NBA team. Because of this, in ten years I could end up living in possibly 29 other cities besides Los Angeles, given that there are currently 30 teams in the NBA. I plan to love my job and work tirelessly everyday.” Scuric said.Matheus Charnichenco (’17) focuses more on personal independence while has clear what he wants.“I feel that I will most likely be done with studies, meaning university and masters. I will probably be already working, having a good job if I haven't already opened my own engineering company. At that time, I will be okay if I don't live in a house I built, although I strongly feel it is the time to think about it. Also, I will have at least the wage for an average civil engineer, and will definitely not depend on my parents anymore.”Max Nemoy (’20) can already imagine himself in college although beyond that is too far.“I see myself in ten years just ending college and hopefully continuing to a higher form of education on business and law. Besides that I’m not very sure yet.”Kevin Shao (’19) shares Matheus’ leadership. After college he will be looking forward to start his own tech company somewhere in California.“My innate intellect will be useful to me to become insultingly rich. In fact, I’m already doing it in high school, in terms of grades, with the intention to go to a prestigious college focused on computer science, and after that create a successful tech company,” Shao said.Alyssa Jaffe (’17) is willing to put in the work to achieve her ambitious dream.“In ten years, I hope to see myself performing on Broadway. I am going to college for musical theatre, and believe that with a lot of work and dedication, along with quite a bit of luck, I can succeed. It has been my dream to perform on Broadway since I was in fourth grade, and I hope that over the course of my life I will play a great deal of my dream roles. Hopefully, in ten years, I will be doing what I love.”Amoolya Grandhi (’18) gives preference to travelling while is concerned about having a job that can cover her basic needs.“I see myself having traveled the whole world: Australia, Germany, China, Singapore [and] all kinds of countries I haven’t already been to,” Grandhi said. “Also, by that time, I’d like to have a stable job on something related with science.”Sander Tangen (’17) focuses more on having freedom to do whatever he wants.“I hope to have a career where I’m excited to go to work everyday. Optimistically, with some creative freedom and the ability to travel and live a good life,” Tangen said.Amber Cisneros (’17) bends more towards psychology.“In 10 years, I hope to be done with school, and hopefully I will have the degrees I need to become a clinical psychologist. I plan to travel to Europe after or during any of my college experience. Furthermore, I plan on moving back to Santa Monica to spend time with pals, and a cat or two.”While some Samo students are already considerably confident about what their life will be like in 10 years, for many, high school is a time to figure out what they want to do.