This past weekend I got to see my friend crucified on stage. It… was… awesome. It also made me think, my friend is going to school for theater, which is wonderful. I have so much respect for people who are pursuing careers they will actually enjoy, regardless of risk. I’d say about one in 10 college students can honestly claim to be doing this. The rest fall under a few less idealistic categories.

Personally, I’m going to be a doctor because of television. I grew up watching “ER,” I idolize “House” and I’m now realistically settling on being as good a physician as “Dr. Cox” from “Scrubs.”

Does it freak anyone out that they may one day be treated by a girl who momentarily wondered if she wanted to be an anthropologist after seeing an episode of “Bones?”

Don’t worry, I’m guessing that I’m not the only one jumping on the medical drama bandwagon. Or, maybe they’re honing they’re legal skills; because, they were oh so inspired by Family Law. Or they’re off to the police academy because they know, from television, how easy it is to be a crooked cop. If there’s a TV show about an occupation, there are people who find it intriguing enough to devote their lives to it.

There is something seriously wrong with the reasoning behind our career decisions. If your number one reason for choosing your major is to get a lot of money really fast, keep in mind all the money in the world won’t help you feel better after your marriage train wrecks and your kids won’t talk to you because they blame their failings on the fact that you haven’t been in their lives; because, you’ve been making money.

Just saying.

Students are picking horrible jobs; because, they can make a bit more money – money they won’t be able to spend because they’re stuck at their horrible job.

Or, maybe it’s to be impressive. You know what’s impressive – My dad can fix anything that is remotely mechanical, my uncle can wire a house and my other uncle actually builds houses.

If anything bad ever happens and the college generation has to fend for itself, all the impressiveness in the world isn’t going to save our pretentious, over-educated selves from starvation, cold or the heart-stopping realization that we don’t actually know anything.

It’s really no wonder that most young Americans are jumping on whatever sub-par reason for career choices they can come up with. There is so much pressure to make a decision, make it quick and make it good, that one’s passions take a back seat to what are supposedly more acceptable reasons. In many countries, it’s expected for a student to take a year off and explore careers and life before re-entering school at the university level. In fact, most of schooling is focused on helping students to decide on a career that will actually suit them.

In America, students are given the same survey of classes that have little to do with real life until the reach college.

Once there, and they’d better be there right out of high school or face the embarrassment of being an academic failure. The options to explore different alternatives are only as present as the availability of classes.

Don’t ignore your passions because a business degree will give you the skills to pay the bills. Don’t be embarrassed because your talents will be useful in the event a freak disease wipes out 99 percent of the population and the survivors must remake a functioning civilization (see Stephen King’s “The Stand”).

Now, I’m off to become an impressively rich doctor because the television told me to.