So, your high school career is wrapping up. You knew this was coming all along—but in the nearsighted eyes of an underclassman, you never thought these four years would go so fast. Counselors are coming into your classes, talking to you about SATs, college and career fairs, and a plethora of words you always thought were a distant fantasy—your proverbial “monster-under-the-bed” of schooling: a tale told to you by your parents to scare you about the life ahead of you. But now, the future is here, and there’s no denying it.

“I’m scared of life after high school,” admits BAHS Junior Meghan Thompson. “I feel like when you’re in high school, most of the choices you make academically revolve around college. So once you’re in college, then what?” Luckily, many Bel Air High School students are ahead of the curve, with their mind set on, or at least strongly considering, their dream colleges and occupations.

“Because I’m the biggest over thinker of all time, I’ve been planning my future for a while. I’ve known what I wanted to do with my life since middle school, and I’ve had several colleges picked out before my sophomore year of high school,” says BAHS Senior Quinn Baumeister, adding, “I plan on studying creative writing. I’d like to be either an editor or a publisher of some kind, but writing and publishing novels is a huge dream of mine.”

Even Meghan Thompson has conquered her fear of life after graduation and narrowed down her options. “I definitely plan on going to college. I’m looking at schools already, such as Loyola, University of Maryland, and Penn State, where I plan on studying one of three things: journalism, graphic design, or adolescent psychiatry,” she says.

More often than not, a student will make decisions about their futures because of external stimuli. “I plan to become a pediatric oncologist,” says Autumn Rose, a BAHS senior. “This has been an aspiration of mine ever since my childhood friend, Jedidiah Thomas Smith, passed away from leukemia in 2010. Ever since then, I have decided to continue fighting the battle that he had lost.” Other times, it’s an influential teacher that changes the course of a student’s life. Meghan Thompson remarks that, “My journalism teacher, Mr. Blackburn, has inspired me to go into journalism involving communications as well as the media.”

No matter what you plan to do and when you know you want to do it, college and careers are a major concern in the lives of all high school students eventually. So take classes that interest you, talk to peers, even plan a college visit or two—they’ll help you in the long run.