Right place, right time

I've always thought that the key to a successful life was to be in the right place at the right time. Which is to say, that you have to keep faith that wherever you wind up is where you are most needed.
We spend an awful lot of our lives working towards our futures. The pressure is now on children as young as ten and twelve to choose careers. We somehow expect them to know what will make them happy twenty plus year into the future. From that point, they are groomed for a role, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hence we have a society of trained doctors and engineers who drop out before getting degrees who are doing physical jobs that they enjoy far more.
In my own case, I studied towards becoming a lawyer for two years, only to discover that it was not the career for me. What happened for the most part is that I wandered from job to job. I wound up working wherever I was most needed, where I could do the most good. For those of you who believe in God, you could say that Providence was in action. I like to say that the Universe itself was working to put me where I was needed.
I don't think we should spend so much time forcing kids to become one thing. It just seems counter-productive.
I propose that we teach all kids the basics very early. For the first three years of schooling, concentrate on the areas of reading, writing and good math skills. (By the end of grade four, they should be able to do basic multiplication in their heads.) At that point, administer an aptitude test. Find out what interests the kids. When they are fifteen or so, you then give the students a more refined aptitude test, and then ask them what they want to become, and train them with the necessary skills, preferably by experience in an apprenticeship system.
Which brings me to the last part of the system. All career choices should be given the same level of respect. Let's face it, who wants to go to a school reunion and tell everyone that they are a mechanic or a farmer? We look down on these professions, while we value lawyers and computer programmers. Somehow society has forgotten that we rely on carpenters, plumbers and farmers just to live. Why shouldn't fishermen have the same prestige as accountants?
Each of us can do so much for society. We just have to believe that where we are is where we need to be. Working hard at something we enjoy doing can be of benefit to the rest of the world.