It’s funny you write this, because in Hungary many kids today want to move to the US to get that kind of freedom. Even my mother says that teenagers should be given more time to decide.

About 15 years ago (I was about to write “a few years” when I realised it was around 2000. Heck, I’m old) the Hungarian school system got modified a bit, and right after 8 grades of elementary school, teens can practically extend it with 2 more (a strange concept if you ask me, but let’s not forget I’m a lucky bastard who knew his goals back at cca. 10 years old.) To the teachers’ surprise, smart kids went to general purpose high schools (called gimnázium, which has nothing to do with the gym) so they can continue to university or college instead of these. Kids with a purpose went to the “szakközépiskola” (translates to secondary school in Google Translate, but I’m suspicious), which is said to be a bit weaker in common stuff like literature and math, but teach you a job early on. And finally, and excuse me to use this phrase, dumb kids without any idea what to do with their lives went to these new 9–10th grades (I got the favour to teach a class of them about computers. Most of them couldn’t even grasp the concept of files and directories.) And why? Because it was mandatory: kids are required to stay in school until they are 16. So they did, suffering through two more years, just to drop out at the end and either get to really lowly jobs, or to simply do nothing (let’s just not mention crime; stay positive!) Funny thing is, these two grades were designed to help kids decide what to do with their lives, but 99% of them failed to do so.

Okay, ranting over, let’s get back to the topic. If you are determined enough and you know your own limits, you will find your purpose even in the dark hole of our world (not just the Internet, which is just a dark hole within an other one. Is that even possible, Prof. Hawking?). Otherwise you can do anything to find your dreams, if you don’t have the faintest idea about it, you are doomed. So just give the universe a hint where you want to be, and sooner than you think you will be given the opportunity. Then, all you need to do is to grab it.