Sit alone and separate what you want from what’s expected of you. They might match. Check anyway.

Expectation arrives early and unlabelled, which is why it gets mistaken for desire. A course, a career, a path through the next four years can be wanted by your family, your school and your friends at once, and after a while it feels like yours. Sometimes it genuinely is, which is the part people forget. The only way to know is to pull them apart and look separately.

Take the big thing in front of you and write two short lists: what you would choose with nobody watching, and what is expected. Mark where they match, which is good news. Where they do not, know which list you are following.