The burning question

With a foggy memory I can remember the days when I only worried about the next kick-ball game I would play during recess. Another thing that I can also remember is when a person would ask me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Of course I would give answers that would make anybody laugh out loud, I wanted to be a police officer who also played the violin. Can you imagine receiving a ticket from a highway patrol, while she plays you the most depressing songs on the violin? With much certainty I can say that that aspiration is long forgotten. Yet that same question that we have all been receiving still comes every so often. It is rather funny though, that growing up for us sophomores is just about two years away.
With today's current economic crisis it seems that it is all the more important to decide what we want to do when we "grow up." Because an education can not only further us, but it can also help out our family members. But that yearning to help out our struggling families, makes "growing up" even more difficult. Not only must we consider what education might be more accessible, but also what career can give us the most economic security.
So as I start to consider a career in journalism, I begin to consider the fact that I may not have the right amount of financial security. My parents tell me to follow my passion, yet what am I supposed to do with a passion that won't allow me to be economically strong? This is when as still a 16 year old, I start to think, what's more important, money or my passion?
So as the school year continues to move on, and our time to "grow up" gets only nearer, things such as kick-ball no longer ponder in my head. Instead I obsess about what I will answer next to that burning question, "What do you want do when you grow up?"
--Lissette Rodriguez...hopefully the next Elizabeth Vargas when I grow up