It was the first week of my senior year of high school. I was sitting in my physics class, and freaked out.

“Is this what I want to do with my life, for the rest of my life?” I asked myself.

“No.” Of course it wasn’t. I had just turned 17, and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. And so I dropped out of physics, and decided to simply follow my intuition and push my comfort zone while I still had the chance.

It was an interesting year: I took arts and humanities courses, joined the school play, joined a soccer team (first time playing team sports, ever) and made a ton of short movies on my spare time. I didn't really focus on my classes, and so by the time university applications were due I could really only apply for arts and media programs.

I felt obliged to go to university. I have no idea why. Everybody else was going, so there was that. I think the thought of being out of school scared me a bit, and I wanted to be doing something next September, so there was that too. I applied for a program called New Media, which promised to be a combination of film, media, and computer technology. In all honesty, I had no idea what I was expecting. I liked making movies, writing, science, technology, and computers. I don't know why I thought this program would be able to combine all those things, but I did. I was delusional.

I was very, very naive.

I graduated in June 2013 with a 79% average, a major step down from previous years. I moved to Toronto in the fall, and did very well in my program, ending up with a GPA that was equivalent to an A-. That year I spent my time making movies, writing scripts, and acting. It was, again, a major deviation for me.

And then September 2014 hit, and everything changed.

At the beginning of my second year, I moved into a student house with a group of people from my program who I considered to be friends. I was wrong. These were not friends, but instead were people I had surrounded myself with in order to avoid making the right choices. As I turned 19 in early September, the three of them went downstairs to light up a bong and smoke pot. I had made a terrible, terrible mistake.

I looked at my program more clearly: I would receive a bachelor of fine arts. This wasn't a program aimed at marrying technology and the humanities, this was an arts program that incorporated the use of digital technology.

“What am I going to do after I graduate?”

“What kind of jobs will I be able to get?”

I found myself asking the exact same questions I was asking myself 2 years prior. Instead of working to answer those questions, I procrastinated by taking a major deviation into the world of fine arts for 2 years.

Here's what I wish I'd done, and what I hope you may consider doing, considering you have no idea what you want to do with your life either:

1 - Don't worry about what you're going to do after high school, just focus on finishing it.

Why are you in high school? To get a diploma.

What does this diploma do? It allows you to gain employment pretty much anywhere that doesn't require higher education or training.

You need this diploma. You don't need college or university. You don't need a trade school. But you do need this diploma. So take every class you think you might need as a prerequisite down the line, and aim for 100% in each one. You may not realize it now, but you have it extremely easy. You simply have to show up for around 7 hours a day, take whatever you want, and do homework. Take advantage of that while you can and get your high school diploma with stellar marks and all the classes you might need.

In Canada, 5 classes stand out as very important: English, Advanced Functions, Calculus and Vectors, Physics, and Chemistry. These courses are required for any Engineering program, and are arguably the hardest to retake after you leave high school, so many people make sure they have them as credits, even if that means taking an additional semester of high school.

2 - Okay, I've graduated, now what?

First of all: CONGRATULATIONS. From the bottom of my heart, I am deeply proud of you. This is a massive accomplishment. You just spent the last 12 years of your life in mandatory, compulsorary education. You now know more than even the best read people 250 years ago. Feel proud of yourself.

You've just spent 18 years following the lead of others: you had to get this diploma, do it at this age, work during this time. Now, you're an adult. Now you have to take action. Action gets you results.

Nothing will simply happen to or for you anymore. Nobody cares enough about you to do that, even your parents or your lover. They're all concerned with themselves, too, after all. People will give you advice, but now every decision and action is in your own hands. And you will make mistakes, potentially devastating mistakes. That's all apart of the process.

Want to go on a trip? Great, you have to get yourself there. Want to be able to call and text people? Great, you have to pay your phone bill. Want to have a roof over your head? You better pay your rent.

You must now take control over your life.

3 - Find what you're enthusiastic about and want to work hard at

If you don't want to go to sleep as a kid, do you go to sleep? Or do you whine and complain until someone makes you go to sleep?

For some reason, adults think they have to do things. You don't have to do anything except feed yourself, drink water, put shelter over your head, clothes on your back, and have access to adequate healthcare. Those are your “haves”. Everything else in life is a “want”.

What do you want to do? Not for the rest of your life, because that doesn't exist, but for right now. Find out what that is, and keep going until you find something that makes you enthusiastic and you're willing to work very hard at.

The best test for this is to teach it back to someone. If you find that you love teaching it and it inspires you, then you're on the right track.

I doubt this will happen right after high school. It may take you a year to find this. Or 5 years. Or 10 years. All that matters if that you never stop focusing. Keep going until you find something that makes you enthusiastic and that you're willing to work hard at.

4 - Pursue that thing vigorously

And if it requires college or university, then go there. Here's the great thing about being confident about something that makes you enthusiastic and you're willing to work very hard at: obstacles in your way won't matter.

Student debt will become meaningless. What's the alternative, not going after this thing? You'll take on the debt, and pay it off quickly because you're extremely enthusiastic about this thing.

This will help you climb the ladder of people who are also interested in doing it, but don't love it as much as you.

Here's the thing: whatever it is you're doing, somebody out there in the world loves it more than you and wants to do it better, even if they've never had the opportunity to try it before.

That's why it's paramount that you find something that you really think you love more than anyone else on the planet. Once you find it, all those other people won't matter anymore. All you'll want to do is keep doing it.

It will probably change over the years, as you change and grow as a person. That's okay, just make sure you recognize that and are never doing something for the sake of loyalty. Loyalty is overrated. If you've fallen out of love with something, then it's time to move on. Do you stay in a relationship with someone who doesn't interest you anymore? No, you move on and appreciate what you had with that person and how it made you grow.

You move on until, one day, you get married. You find someone who you love so much, you'd like to spend your remaining years with them exclusively.

But then you can also get a divorce, so don't sweat absolutes. The only absolute that really exists is your own self, and how in tune you are with it. That's up to you.

5 - So….what do I do after graduating high school…?

You get your diploma. You graduate. You ignore people who tell you that “this'll look bad for colleges”. It won't. They don't care. They just want your money. If you have the grades, they don't care what you've been doing for the past 5 years.

Then you do nothing. If your parents kick you out, you go get a job someplace and pay for your rent. If they let you stay, go do what you want.

If that means travelling, save up money and travel. If it means acting, then go do that.

Find what you're enthusiastic about and want to work really hard at. Find what you want to marry (but remember you can always divorce it). If it requires college or university, then go. If you need to take out student loans, take them out.

If people call you crazy, forget them. They're the ones who will wake up at 40 with two kids, insurmountable debt, and will wonder: “Where did my life go?”

Your life is happening right now. Not 4 years ago, and not 4 years from now. Get your degree, do as well as you possibly can, get all the classes you need, and then graduate. And then do the next thing. And the next thing after that.

Just make sure you're always doing what you want to do. Not what other people want you to do. Not what you think you should do. Just what you want to do.

And you'll be fine.