Life After High School

When it comes to the big question of “What’s next?” after high school graduation, there are so many options you can pursue. For you to have gotten this far is an accomplishment and you should be proud of yourself! And to be fair, let’s give credit where credit is due… parents do help a lot. The whole growing up thing is a team effort and now that you’re in the process on your way to graduation from high school, your parents want to continue to help you. In the SAFE Steps system, we use the analogy of a bicycle where the parents provide the power to the back wheel and the students steer the front wheel. Sometimes you find yourself working against your parents. It can only lead to frustration or even failure. Communication, support, and a common vision are critical to you achieving your goals.

Education is paramount to achieving long-term success in life and the learning you have done so far, and the additional learning you are going to undertake in high school and beyond, helps to build a solid career foundation which will help you create the life that you want to live.

High school is a very exciting time with lots of changes and growth. You’ll make new friends, learn new subject matter, develop new hobbies and interests, and establish your path beyond high school. In addition, you’ll go through other life experiences such as learning to drive a motor vehicle and obtaining a summer job. These are all part of growing up and make the short four years in high school an amazing time of personal growth.

Determining your path after High School can be a stressful experience if you don’t plan for it as many of your options will depend on what you accomplished during these 4 years. Before you know it, parents, relatives and friends will be asking you what you want to do after high school.

Deciding in your teens what you would like to do for the rest of your life is hard! The good news is that there is no right or wrong answer, and every student has to make the decision based on what works best for them. Although similar, no two students are the same. We work in life for two primary reasons:
1) to give us a sense of fulfillment
2) to make money so that we can live our desired lifestyle.
The important thing is that what you choose makes you happy and affords you the lifestyle that you want.

Our goal at the SAFE Steps is to make this journey less stressful for you and your parents. We start out by helping you understand the options that are available to you after high school and help you position yourself to be successful in pursuing whichever options you choose.

We will introduce you to some different options and help you to position yourself for success in pursuing those that you are interested in. This is not a comprehensive list of options but rather, some of the key directions that you could choose. We will describe these in some detail, give you some idea of the opportunities within those choices, and give you some insight as to how to prepare yourself.

The areas that we address range from moving into the workforce right after high school to pursuing a higher level education all the way up through a doctorate program. This is a very broad range of opportunities, but the good news is it is always better to have choices than to be forced down the wrong path for you.

Military service is one possibility, as is going to a trade school or attending community college. Since approximately 66% of high school graduates choose to go to college, the remaining students enter into one of these areas. All of these help to develop skill sets that can then be leveraged into a trade or be the platform that jump-starts you into higher education or helps you enter the work force. This is really where the SAFE Steps system can be most helpful. We have the tools and the knowledge to maximize your opportunity – our STEPS Program helps you learn skills that will help you in every aspect of life and will give you an advantage regardless of the path you choose.

One last thing before we get started is to remind you that all of these options are most likely available to you and that these choices are not final! You can decide to enter the workforce and then change your mind and go to college or enlist in the military. You can also decide to change your major in college if you realize that Psychology is not what you enjoy or see yourself doing as a career and maybe Business is. Today’s graduates are facing a very different employment climate than they were 20 years ago. Today’s students will change jobs or employers every 3 to 5 years on average. Our goal is to help you build a foundation, but you should realize that everything is flexible.

We hope this gives you a better idea of what SAFE Steps has to offer you.