Parents and educators will encourage the youth to have a back-up plan of some sort when they express interest in those careers. On the other hand, some will suggest for them not to follow their goals and to do something else. These career goals are seen as very risky career choices. Someone who constantly pursues being an actor or a famous singer, can experience serious depression after being dedicated to a goal for so long and not achieving it. These career paths take a lot of time, money, & motivation. Sometimes you can spend, spend, spend, and still not achieve the goal that you want in the end.

I honestly believe that if a child really wants to be a football star that parents and educators should push them and assist them in achieving that goal. However, at the same time I sometimes feel that it is a growing trend and maybe that is why educators may try and talk the youth into other career goals. For instance many children, especially in the African-American community, want to be a rapper or athlete. These can be excellent career paths, but it’s a little bothersome when everyone wants to do it because in reality everybody cannot do it.

I personally would like to hear more of the African-American youth say “I want to be a lawyer” or ” I want to be a policeman”, because the black community with all the racism that still exists, needs to be more involved with the legal system. With all that being said I understand why a lot of the youth especially, in the African American communities, desire to be athletes or entertainers. The youth are impatient as far as going about finding a career. As a child if you feel like you are not able to get the best of the best and you see your family struggling, you want to help. So, the youth may feel like they don’t have the time to wait on a diploma, an associates, or bachelors degree & a masters to get things done. From the outside looking a lot of the youth have the mentality that if they can just hurry up and make it big over night then everything will be okay.

They may feel like the only thing that is going to help is a big lump some of money really quick. In reality, it’s extremely hard to go into the NBA or to get a record deal, but that’s not how they may look at it. There is not a thing wrong with wanting to be a star, but at the same time people really have to realize how hard that really is.

Every now and then you hear the story about how a teacher or parent told someone to pursue another career and they didn’t and made it big. However, that doesn’t happen a lot. So, it’s very important that adults don’t discourage the youth, but they inform them of how hard their career path can really be and prepare them. If someone really wants to be a NFL star then guess what, they can. However, there are also many other choices that should not be ignored and the youth needs to be informed of every opportunity available to them.