Many people believe that adolescents only live for today.
But when local sixth and seventh graders wrote about their dreams for future careers, they wrote about becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers, firefighters, actresses, professional athletes, and many other professions. The most common obstacles they saw for reaching their dreams were money, peer pressure to take drugs, and not having the confidence to reach their goals. Their most common resources were their families, teachers, friends, and themselves. In different countries, careers involve different pathways through school. If students want to become a doctor in Mexico, they go to primaria, secundaria, and preparatoria for 12 years and then to universidad for 7 or 8 years.