As we head into a season of conferences and conversations focused on developing youth and the next generation of talent, a quote recently stopped me: “The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.”
I found myself thinking about this when talking with my 19-year-old son, who, like so many young people, is questioning his path.
He knows he loves art and being creative, but he struggles to see how his educational path will ultimately lead to a career that feels fulfilling. The weight of choosing one direction can feel enormous when you haven’t fully figured out who you are yet. It can feel as though choosing one thing means closing the door on everything else.
And then there is the challenge of not knowing what all the possibilities are. How can you choose a path when you haven’t been exposed to all the paths that might exist?
That is where I believe we, as industry professionals, have a responsibility.
Through the Animal Health Corridor, we are working to tell more of the stories of our industry and introduce high school and early college students to the incredible range of careers and opportunities that exist in animal health. There are so many ways to contribute to this industry through science, technology, business, veterinary medicine, agriculture, entrepreneurship, research, communications and countless other disciplines.
Many students simply don’t know these possibilities exist. Our job isn’t to tell young people exactly what they should become. It is to help them see what is possible.
We can encourage them to stay curious. To ask questions. To explore things they haven’t considered. To seek out people who can show them a different perspective. And, perhaps most importantly, to trust their instincts and give themselves permission to evolve.
Careers are long. They take turns. They have unexpected opportunities, detours and sometimes complete changes in direction. The education and experiences you gain in one area may become the foundation for something you never imagined doing.
You don’t have to know exactly who you are going to become before you begin. You just have to start navigating forward.
I also remind my son that the right rooms and the right people will make space for you. They will pull out another chair at the table. You don’t have to become someone else to belong in the places that are right for you.
Keep exploring. Keep learning. Keep being authentically you. The right opportunities will find you and you will be ready to recognize them when they do.
Then my son took the flower metaphor one step further.
He reminded me that growing flowers takes patience and persistence. A seed doesn’t bloom overnight. And sometimes, the seed that becomes a flower has been carried a long way by a bird before it ever finds the soil where it can grow.
I love that thought.
Sometimes our stories carry us to places we could never have imagined. Sometimes the path we think we are choosing is simply carrying us toward the place where we are meant to bloom.
As an industry, we have an opportunity to help young people see more possibilities, ask more questions and have the confidence to keep moving forward even when they don’t yet know exactly where they are going.
Maybe that is what we can give the next generation: not all the answers, but a broader view of what is possible and the encouragement to trust themselves along the way.
Plant the seed. Keep growing. Keep exploring. And let the journey carry you to where you are meant to bloom.