your future：open wide

名称：your future：open wide
内容简介：
Dear Arizona,
　　I can't decide what to be when I grow up. Do you have tips to help me figure it out?
　 —Indecisive in Indiana

Dear Indecisive,
　　It's funny you'e asking this question, because my class had Career Day two weeks ago!

When I first found out that we’d get to visit a workplace of our choice, I got really excited. My teacher handed out a list of jobs, and we were supposed to check off the one that seemed the most interesting to us. I barely even read the choices, because the second I saw veterinarian I was done looking.

“That was so hard,” said my friend Jay at lunchtime. “How were we supposed to choose one thing from that huge list?”

“I know!” said Roxanne. “I couldn’t decide between chef, teacher, author, or marine biologist. I finally just closed my eyes, pointed, and picked the one closest to my finger.”

Jay nodded. “I ended up checking off lawyer, but I think car mechanic would have been cool, too.”

“Those jobs sound fun, but I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember,” I told them. “I already know the best vet schools and the grades I’ll need to get into them and how many years I’ll have to go to college and . . .”

“You want to be a vet—we get it!” said Roxanne, laughing. “But some of us aren’t as clear about our futures.”

“I’m sorry for going on about it,” I said. “I’m just so excited about the trip!”

To say I was looking forward to Career Day would be the understatement of the century. But when Friday finally rolled around and the different career groups started getting into different vans, my teacher made an announcement.

“We just got word from the veterinarian’s office. An emergency has come up, and we won’t be able to visit this morning. So those of you in the vet group will join the dentist group.”

As you can imagine, I was so unbelievably disappointed that I felt like yelling “This can’t be happening!” Instead, I walked like a zombie over to the van, squished in, and sat silently as we drove to the last place on Earth I wanted to go.

“I’ve thought teeth were awesome ever since I lost my first one and put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy,” said Kaitlin.

“I always wanted to have my own dentist chair to read and relax in,” said Michael.

“My uncle is a dentist,” said Courtney. “He says it’s the most fun profession ever!”

I didn’t say a word. All I could think about was how nothing was going my way. And when we got to the office, I just hoped the whole thing would hurry up and be over.

But then the friendliest, most smiley woman walked over to our group and said, “Welcome! I’m Dr. Medina. I’ve been looking forward to your visit.”

After chatting with us for a few minutes about our favorite subjects and hobbies, Dr. Medina told us how much she loved her job. She said that by helping to keep her patients’ teeth healthy, she was helping to make their lives better.

Dr. Medina showed us all these neat tools, including one that works by shining a special blue light, and she even let us take turns operating a chair that goes up and down.

“What do you like besides teeth?” asked Michael.

“Good question.” Dr. Medina smiled. “I like music, and I play guitar in a band on the weekends. That’s another great thing about being a dentist— you can listen to your favorite music all day long.”

At the end of our visit, Dr. Medina gave us special cinnamonf lavored dental f loss and colorchanging toothbrushes.

We spent the whole ride back to school talking about our favorite parts of the visit. And believe it or not, I started thinking it might be almost as cool to be a dentist as it would to be a veterinarian.

So, dear Indecisive, I think it’s totally fine that you haven’t settled on a future career yet. Just try to be open to different possibilities. If you’d like to figure out what interests you, maybe you could ask people questions about their jobs. And if you want to know more about a career, your parents and teachers can help you look into volunteer opportunities.

Lately I’ve been thinking it might be fun to combine my love for animals and my newfound interest in dentistry—and work on animals’ teeth at a zoo! I guess we’ll see.

Ciao for now,

Arizona