Orson Welles once said, “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” In the grand scheme of high school and college, where exactly should our ‘happy endings’ be? With scheduling right around the corner and different classes flying everywhere, it can be really hard to see that ‘happy ending’ at all.

High school is difficult, there’s no way around it. It’s the time between knowing who you were and trying to find out who you are. It’s when you’re surrounded by hundreds of people, each going their own way, and you’re not sure which way you should go. Do you follow the crowd? Or do you make a stand and dare to do your own thing. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. When you do your own thing, follow what you want to do, succeed or fail, at least you know you tried. You gave it your best shot, and maybe it wasn’t for you, but at least now you know, and you discover something else in its wake. That’s high school: the beginning of the discovery.

Between choosing classes, narrowing down career paths, and choosing colleges, it’s really easy to get lost on your adventure to discovery. Not knowing any of the above or being afraid to fail is completely normal, but panicking’s not going to help anyone, least of all yourself. You’ve just got to sit down, calm down, and figure this stuff out. Whether you talk to one of the counselors about your courses, or you talk with another student, ultimately, the decision is yours. If you have no idea what you want to do in college or after college, wing it! High school is the perfect time to test the waters of medical sciences or literary composition or whatever it is you think you might be interested in. Take a the class that you think is part of the career you might want to pursue. What’s the worst that can happen? You don’t like it? Hey, at least now you know!

In a society where everyone is watching, everyone’s afraid to fail. The problem isn’t the failure, it’s the fact that failure is a part of life. You have to realize that you’re bad at something to find out what you’re really good at. Why be afraid to find out what you can and can’t do? The only way to find out where your story ends is to find out where it’s going.