``what will I be?’’ is a question that worries many boys. They pass restless days and sleepless night in thinking over this question, and yet it defies solution. The boys rally does not know what to do.
One thing is, however, certain that boys should not be led their fancy in this matter. A boy who read stories of exploration thought of becoming an explorer but being sickly and weak he came of grief. Similarly, another who had been reading romances thought of marrying a princess, discovering a hidden treasure, and founding a kingdom, but all his dreams came to naught. He ended by being the head of his village school, when he married a village girl, and eked out his living by agriculture.
Most of us run after the glittering prizes of government service. If we are modest and contended, fond of books and leisure we want a job in the education department. If we are interested in mechanics and the work of construction, we wish to succeed in the department of public works. A young man, who is skilled in the use of figures, thinks of serving under the accountant –general, and one who loves power and influence wishes to be in the police, the judicial or the executive department. Thus most of the brightest of our young men have their eyes fixed upon a comfortable government job. This is, of courses, natural. The government service means a regular and handsome pay, security of service, and decent pension after one retires. The ranks are full, and though there are many who try to get in, there are very few who succeed.
On this account, many young men prefer law, medicine, or business, to government service. But in law and medicine also, for one man who succeeds there are twenty who fail. Though some lawyers and doctors live in big bungalows and have their motor-cars, many can hardly make both ends meet. It is because both these professions are overcrowded, and it takes a long time for a young man to make his way there. Business might bring untold wealth, or lead to dire poverty. He who takes up business, therefore, must be prepared for the reverses of fortune.
I think the time has come when young men should not think of being clerks in offices, schoolmasters in high schools, journalists, foresters , or excise inspectors only, but should also think of such things as growing fruit, keeping poultry, running grocer’ shops, rearing silkworms, and other such honorable though modest professions.