My family and I often have discussions about what I want to do in the future, what I want to study at university. The frustrating thing about this is that I never know how to answer, I’ve had many hobbies and interests throughout my life but I’ve never been able to clearly envision those hobbies to be a part of my life forever. In addition, I feel like I’ve always given up on those hobbies or never tried or cared enough to continue for a long period of time. However, from my experiences with all of these interests, I’ve realised the value of perseverance. I believe that this is a skill which I lack, and for a while now it’s been a goal in the back of my mind to be more persevering. This goal is what I currently believe to be my first step towards my future. At the moment, I’m not sure what I want to do when I’m older. Although I often feel pressure to know the answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have to have an answer just yet.

 

As for the hobbies and interests which I’ve given up, although I am sure of my decision to quit, there have been many times where I regret that decision. A major example is dancing. Although I continue to dance for school events and the occasional open class, there is always a cloud of regret surrounding me every time I step into a dance studio. I stopped taking dance seriously and going to classes when I got scared that I was not going to be good enough compared to others. Even after that, I loved the art and never really stopped. Especially during the course of this year, I’ve realised how much time I had lost during the 3-4 years where I couldn’t gather up the courage to sign up for an open class. I don’t believe that dancing will be a part of my future in term of a career, but I do want to keep it a close part of me. Which is why I regret my lack of perseverance. Even though I never had a commitment to working in the dance industry, If I had kept going to classes, maybe I could have had more enjoyable experiences as a dancer. 

 

I feel like this personal statement is becoming more about this one singular goal rather than my future, but this is because I genuinely don’t know what to say about my future. I’ve attempted to come up with ideas for a career, or at least a university I’m interested in. However, I seem to always end up at the same question. “What if I don’t want to commit to this in the future?” My interests have changed over the course of my life. They have mostly stayed around the same area of interest, but none of them seems to appeal to me as a pathway to my future. Which is the reason why this statement has leaned more towards that one goal. Perseverance. I want to work towards this goal in small steps. I’m aware that this has been a weakness of mine, and it isn’t a goal I can achieve overnight. The first step for me is to be committed to something over the course of highschool. I’m taking this focus on my passion for dancing, and I’ve set myself to participate in as many dance events as possible. Although this sounds just like a little fun hobby, just in the span of a year, I’ve had multiple times where I was ready to give up the dance event. So this has become my first challenge, along with several other small steps which I’m taking.

 

So overall, my goal is to make a commitment. Because I’m so unsure about what to do with my future, I want to focus on myself right now, and to prepare myself for when I really do need to make important decisions. I believe that my lack of perseverance and commitment has been the root cause of my indecisiveness, therefore is the first thing I want to work on. I know that this isn’t something that I will be able to achieve in the short span of 4 years, but I believe that I can improve and grow.