Having a Plan

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz has posted an "open letter to bachurim" in which he discusses the importance of having a plan.

This post resonated. Although I'm sure the problem is much worse in the chareidi velt, it is also not uncommon among guys who grew up MO and, for a lack of a better term, "flipped out" to one degree or another in post high school Israeli yeshivas.

I see many guys who are learning, post Israel, who have only the vaguest idea of what they are going to do when they grow up. Some talk about going into chinuch but have no idea what that entails. As Rabbi Horowitz points out, simply learning is not going to get that done. He interviews scores of "lamdin" who have absolutely no teaching skills, don't know their ways around computers (a necessary skill these days), and are completely inarticulate.

Others talk (again very vaguely) about maybe going into their father's businesses (one day) but are doing nothing to prepare for that day. In the meantime, they float through yeshiva without any real idea of what awaits them in "the real world" once their yeshiva days are over.

(Sadly, many of these boys (and I do mean boys) are dating.)

Rabbi Horowitz's wake up call to these bochurim to develop a plan is something that needs to be echoed by parents and Roshei Yeshiva.