Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future.
Not in a dreamy, hopeful way but in a more real, honest, slightly unsettling way.

My daughter is going into matric next year, and naturally, the conversations have shifted toward careers. What she wants to do...Who she wants to become...The kind of life she wants to build etc. And the truth is…I just don’t know what to tell her.

Choosing a career today isn’t what it used to be. It’s not simple. It’s not even clear.
If anything, it feels harder than ever.

Take something like medicine for example, once seen as a stable, respectable, top of the food chain and guaranteed pathway to success. However I recently heard of a girl with an 88% average who was declined at top universities like UCT and Stellenbosch. Eighty-eight percent… and still not enough. ‍‍Let that sink in.

So what are we telling our kids?
That they need to be exceptional just to get in? That only the absolute top, the 90s, the “cream of the crop” stand a chance?

And here's the plot twist, even if they do get in… what are they actually getting into??

I know of someone's daughter who made it. She got into medicine, did everything right. But when she got into community service, she walked straight into a broken system that’s hanging by a thread. Hospitals having collapsed infrastructure, severe understaffing, medicine & equipment shortages, unsafe environments, negligence incidents all resulting in providing poor patient care.The rot of corruption, mismanagement of finances, and failure of leadership have spread like cancer into almost every sector, healthcare, education, justice, security, public service, private you name it.

It’s not just “challenging.” It’s literally dysfunctional.

So then you start asking yourself what is even the point of it all.

Work long hours. Carry immense pressure. All within a system that doesn’t support you.
That doesn’t even allow you to do your job properly or even save lives.

Medicine isn’t the only example.

Now look at accounting, another “safe choice” career we push kids towards. It’s known to have some of the highest rates of mental health struggles. Studies indicate that up to 55%–79% of accountants feel stress and burnout, with reports of 99% of accountants experiencing exhaustion. One in three has reported being diagnosed with depression or even feeling suicidal.

You study for years, you qualify, and then you enter corporate… only to realize it’s a completely different battlefield.

Corporate isn’t just work. It’s politics. It’s survival. It’s a jungle.

You work like a dog, thinking you’ve made it… only to inherit debt, pay tax, drown in inflation all while you’re slowly losing yourself.

So again… what is all of this for?

Nobody told us it would be like this.

We’ve been sold this idea:
Get an education. Get a good job. Build a life.

But what happens when the job is toxic?
When the system is broken?
When the reward doesn’t match the sacrifice?

Because let’s be honest, we’ve seen this before.

Our parents worked hard. Really hard.
And many of them reached retirement only to realise their pension wasn’t enough. Not enough to live comfortably. Not enough to feel secure. Some never even owned property after decades of working.

And now? It’s worse.

You can be a doctor. An accountant. A professional.
And still not afford a home in Cape Town.

So again… what are we working for?

This is where the bigger question comes in, the one we don’t always say out loud.

Is this system… actually working? Because from where I’m standing, it feels like a system that benefits a few, while the majority are stuck trying to keep up. You work, you earn, you pay taxes into structures that don’t serve you.

You’re running this race… but are you really even getting anywhere?

At some point, it starts to feel less like an opportunity and more like a trap! Let’s not even mention the people with degrees and sitting at home with no jobs.

And just when you think it can’t get more complicated, here comes AI. Another plot twist.🤯

Now we’re not just asking our kids to choose a career.
We’re asking them to choose something that might not even exist in the next 10 or 20 years.

Marketing. PR. Accounting. Even parts of medicine.
All being reshaped or replaced by technology.

So now what?

Now they don’t just need to succeed.
They need to compete with machines.

It’s overwhelming to even think about.

And as a parent, the hardest question becomes:
How do you guide your child honestly… without taking away their hope?

The truth is not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.
The system isn’t built for that.

We will always need a working force.
But within that force, there’s a growing pressure. A rat race that feels like it’s speeding up, not slowing down.

So where does that leave the next generation?

Do we prepare them to survive the system?
Or to question it?

Do we teach them to follow the path…
or to rethink it entirely?

Because maybe, just maybe, this moment we’re in is bigger than just career choices.

Maybe it’s a turning point.

A moment where we start to realise that something isn’t working.
That we can’t keep doing things the same way and expect a different result.

And awareness alone isn’t enough.

We can’t just complain.
We can’t just sit in frustration.

At some point, it has to shift into action. Into change. Into reimagining what “success” even looks like.

And maybe that’s where the hope is.

Ephesians 6:12 states, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places"

Not in pretending everything is fine
but in raising a generation that sees clearly… and chooses differently because if they understand the system truly understand it then maybe they’ll be the ones who change it.

And not just talk, post or comment about it.

The revolution starts here!

Love,

B 🫶🏾