3 Ways How You Can Discover Your Purpose While in High School

How to discover my purpose while in high school?

Virtual classes after virtual classes, very limited face-to-face interactions with our besties, and facing our laptops day in and out just to finish all our tasks — those are just some of the things that define what high school is all about. 

As our elementary era is long gone and we’re now trying to make our way through high school, we start asking ourselves what we are really doing in this world. Why do we exist? What for and for whom? At this stage, we are thinking of ways to discover what our place is in society and find our purpose. 

Purpose… big word! How do we even know what ours really is?  Well, you don’t look elsewhere because here are three of the easiest ways that you can use to help you discover your purpose!

1. Find your interests (do not limit yourself inside the four walls of your classroom)

While in high school, you will realize that you like certain subjects more than others. For example, Physics and Geometry? Stan! Literature and World History? Kinda flop — or vice versa. The curriculum and lectures inside the classroom can help you find your interests, but it doesn’t give you the entire story. Why not try going outside of the classroom and join student organizations and clubs?

Student organizations can expose you to different activities where you may find your purpose in. Joining the student newspaper, for example, exposes you to journalism where you may realize your purpose of being the bringer of truth or you may join the student council where you may also realize your purpose of being a leader. Aside from that, you can also enhance career-readiness skills such as leadership, communication, and decision-making which will come in handy as you go out into the real world a few years from now.

Finding your purpose based on your skills and interests doesn’t end inside the classroom. If anything, it just starts there!

2. Ask yourself: “What do I care about the most?”

Looking into your classes and school organizations and clubs are good in finding your purpose. But, finding your purpose can go deeper than that! You can start by thinking about what you care about the most. For example, in a study published in 2022, the researchers found that Gen Z’s care much about the environment that they are more likely to buy products and patronize companies that are sustainable and environmentally responsible. 

As for you, sit yourself down and ask yourself “what do I care about the most?” What’s something that you always think about and keeps you up at night? Is it animals and how they are treated? Is it the melting polar ice caps and the climate change? Finding an answer to these questions can basically help you align your educational and career choices later on, even while you’re still in high school. 
And, true, this can get overwhelming very quickly, but you can always start small within your community. Look around you and see where you can help. At your age, helping doesn’t have to be a full-blown feeding program or forest clean-up. You can start with helping one person, taking care of one animal, or planting one tree (the BINHI Communitree might just be the perfect platform for you!) Remember, you can always start with just one step at a time!

3. Look at the bigger picture

And speaking of helping your community, finding your purpose can also stem from looking at the greater scheme of things. See, in a community, we are all interdependent on each other and, whatever we do, we can all contribute to something bigger than ourselves. We all have our functions and we all can thrive as we rely on each other. That is the aim of having a “regenerative future.”

Regenerative future is the approach towards saving our Earth that goes beyond the talks on sustainability and eco-friendliness. In the words of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC), a regenerative future is a multi-stakeholder goal where businesses and communities are both empowered to commit to a cleaner and greener present and future. It is not about being the best at everything or being number one. It’s about doing your part and doing it to create a long-term impact. It’s having the humanity to care about other people and other living beings that have lived and soon to live — and make a better world and society for you and for them. 

During your high school years, your goal is not to do all of these but to start thinking about it. Consider, for example, your dream college course and your career later on. What are the courses you can take where you can learn how to help your community? How do you envision yourself working for yourself and for the communities you’re a part of? 

High school is about discovering your path in this world and, alongside it, your purpose. Don’t feel bad if you can’t find your purpose after sitting for an hour or a day or a month or a week. It is and will be a process that you will undergo as you choose your college education and your career later on in life. 

What’s important is, at your age, you are aware of your communities and start seeing how you play a role in it. Soon, you’ll be already fulfilling your purpose before you even realize it!

About Energy Development Corporation and the SIKAT Program

ENERGY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (EDC) is First Gen Corporation’s 100% RE subsidiary with over 1,480MW total installed capacity that accounts for 20 percent of the country’s total installed RE capacity. Its 1,185MW geothermal portfolio comprises 62 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity and is the 3rd largest geothermal producer in the world.

Under EDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs, SIKAT aims to provide educational support to the underprivileged but deserving youth. It outweighs other social projects due to its capacity to break intergenerational poverty. SIKAT expresses EDC’s aspirations for all its scholars across the country. The company believes that investing in quality education regardless of their track, whether academic or technical-vocation, will help transform the scholars into future change-drivers in their respective host communities and spheres of influence.

Since 2011, the SIKAT program has produced 210 scholars who study in the University of the Philippines and other state colleges & universities. Get to know some of the SIKAT scholars here.