I have my purpose, but how do I GET there??.

It's been awhile since I have written a journal-like post, but fasten your seatbelts, because here we go...

I think it's absurd that we are expected to know what we want to spend our lives doing before we are old enough to really know who we are.
We live the first 17 years of our lives within the guidelines of our parents, who expect us to transition directly to a post-secondary institution, in which we must already know what direction we are headed, as we will spend the next 4-10 years educating ourselves to be qualified to participate in a profession.
How is this a logical series of events? How are we to know what will make us happy, productive members of society until retirement at 65? How can we maintain a diverse culture when we are all pushed to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, or professional athletes? How many of us spend those years becoming educated and leave feeling like we still have no idea who we are?
I know what I love, what I am passionate about, what I want to contribute to, support, and advocate for in our culture and society. But when do we learn how to turn those things into a job where we can succeed in those goals? How do we know what means to take to get to our end result?