Being unsure what’s next isn’t the same as being lost. Some of the best years start with a shrug.

Not knowing what comes next gets confused with being off course, and they are different things. Lost means you had a direction and cannot find it. Unsure means the direction has not arrived yet, which at sixteen or twenty-six is ordinary and not a failure of planning. Plenty of good stretches start with no idea, because that is when you are still willing to try something unlikely.

When someone asks what your plan is this week, try saying you are still working it out, without the apology. Then do one thing that gives you information: a shift, a club, a conversation with someone doing the job you are curious about.