Even before birth, some individuals have their careers mapped out for them: the spawn of royalty, Jesus Christ, and (generally speaking) an only child of doctors or lawyers, to provide but a few examples.
Others had their options whittled down later in life to a select few suitable careers.
Our parents and grandparents can tell us about this.
A woman had the option of becoming a nurse, a secretary, a teacher, a wife and a mother or wife and a mother plus one of the former.
Finances strictly limited educational opportunities.
Often, one's career path was hereditary: the son of a blacksmith became a blacksmith.
The farmer's son became a farmer.
The grocer's son became a grocer.
The butcher's son became a butcher.
The milkman's son ... well, the milkman's child was illegitimate.
The oppressive environmental whittling on today's young adults is, by contrast, subtle.
Women can do anything (yeah, right), but no, seriously, we can.
And the availability of interest-free student loans eases a financial burden for many - well, at least until tomorrow.
More jobs are out there, more tertiary-level courses exist (did you know you can major in Sanskrit?) and the world is our proverbial oyster.
But, what to do with the opportunities? You see, that is the problem.
Oh, we have no jolly clue.
Beginning university is like getting a new colouring book.
You've got the book, now you choose which picture to colour, you choose which colours to use and, by hokey! you don't even have to stay inside the lines these days, because let's all celebrate our unconventionalities! There are so many options at university, the thought of life after it is mind-boggling, terrifying.
We spend our undergraduate university years pacing up and down asking them, him, her, our parents and ourselves, "What should I do? What should I do?" And we discover apparently we should do postgraduate study.
Then throughout the final years of postgraduate study, students run in circles, pleading with themselves to "Just choose something! Just choose something!"
Perhaps much of the stress stems from this concept of pursuing the "perfect job".
Students studying law fret, thinking maybe they would be more successful if they were in medical school.
Students of sociology speculate upon whether they could make more of a difference in the world if they were studying business.
And yet those blessed theology students probably have no worries at all.
I believe that for each person there are in fact many perfectly suitable vocations, depending upon the varying motives: money, status, professionalism, flexibility, lifestyle; we all have our favourite colours.
To save you the self-berating I will tell you now: just choose something.
I wish I could offer more advice but unfortunately I'm just as bemused by my world of opportunity as the next student.
I will keep you posted.
And my book becomes more colourful by the day, the lines disregarded.
Katie Kenny studies English at the Univerity of Otago.