Where I want to be and Where I Refuse to Be by Emilee

Where I want to be and Where I Refuse to Be by Emilee - December 2015 Scholarship Essay

“Where will you be in ten years?”

This is the question most teenagers dread. Deciding what we want to do for the rest of our lives can be extremely horrifying. Making decisions that will have a huge impact on the rest of your life, when you’re just a teenager? The question alone is enough to give any teenager anxiety.

In ten years, I don’t want to be sitting behind some desks pushing papers until I’m exhausted, then go home and do it all over again the next day. I want to follow in my mother’s footsteps and be out protecting my fellow American’s. My mother is a Sexual Abuse Detective for the Kentucky State Police. Although the job may sound gruesome to most people, it’s humbled me by giving me a glimpse into the lives of the much less fortunate. Some of the things young boys and girls my age have had to fight through are heart-breaking. I want to be protecting children who can’t protect themselves, and stopping people who make children go through the horrible things some children have been through.

Although most high school teenagers can stumble their way through a response as to where they want to be in ten years, most of them could easily tell you where you don’t want to be. As a 14, nearly 15 year old, I don’t want to be like my father when I’m ten years older. I don’t want to have my life overcome by addiction and be willing to do anything to feed it. I don’t want to have to put an addiction in front on my children and my family. Considering where I come from, it’s expected of me to amount to nothing. It’s expected for me to flunk out or possibly finish high school then mope around Hazard, Kentucky for the rest of my life. Although most people around here are content with that, I’m not. That’s not where I want to be in ten years.

I hope that in ten years, I’ll be able to look people in the eye and truthfully be able to say that I’m helping young children and teenagers get out of their abusive situations and homes. I want to be able to look a child in the eye and tell them that everything will be better from then on, because I know that I can help get them out of their situation. Helping children may not seem like a glamorous job that pays a million dollars or makes you famous, but to me, it’s all I could ever dream to be.