Elizabeth is an interesting girl. She is somewhere along the road of her high-school, possibly a few years before finishing. I felt like my conversation was a constant monologue with some kind of guess work and mostly working with her reactions. She has a good intuition and understand much more than any adult I had seen. The problem is, of course, that she does not know what her path in life is and who to become. As I guessed, her parents or some other adults, are pressuring her to decide NOW.

I can relate to her issue. There is definitely a lot of pressure from parents on choosing the “right” path for their kids, the right path is usually the one that involves a bunch of money. Business or science degrees of course. Most Estonians, at least all the ones I have met, prefer creative professions (music, art, film, history, etc). This oversaturates the job market that is already without much demand for creative the types.

I believe, with all my heart, that one needs to find their true passion in life and follow their dreams. The problem here, is that there is no market for some of these dreams. Ideally, I would look further than Estonia to realize such dreams, but most Estonians do not look at that possibility. Moving is very uncomfortable thought for most. So the kids end up with nagging parents who convince them to give up their passions for better paying jobs at home. A life of passable/miserable abundance in my opinion.

There is not much I can advise in this situation. I told Elizabeth to follow her heart, to not listen to people’s logic and pushes to the direction of monetary wealth if it meant sacrificing her passions. I told her that times will be super tough and she will have to work in places she may not like, but she should work on moving towards fulfilling herself. That a good heart is worth more than any amount of money in the world and that we all love her dearly. I told her about my journey to spirituality and how she should distinguish the truth in religions from man made lies. I understood fairly quickly that she already knew everything I had told her. She just needed someone else to tell her that she is not alone in this world. That she is not delusional in her beliefs and that she is on the right path. She was tear eyed thanking me at the end, she told me that she needed “this”. I believe I gave her some hope that day, it is the least I could do.