Recently, I made a crazy decision to completely change career directions. Five or six years from now, I’ll have to write a column to let you know how that decision worked out for me. Right now, my immediate career goal was getting out of a rut and finding a challenge. It’s stirred up a lot of conversations with my kids about their futures and their potential careers.

These are always some of my favorite conversations to have with them because right now, at this point in their lives, the sky is the limit. Anything is possible. If I have one regret about younger years, it is that I didn’t take more time to explore other possible career options.

I locked into a very specific career path when I was very young, and it wasn’t until I was about halfway through my college degree in that area that I realized that that direction was not where I wanted to go for the rest of my life. When my brother, who is a few years younger than I am, announced his college major, I didn’t even know that his area of expertise was a thing. Twenty some years later, he’s still pursuing his original career, and enjoying himself immensely.

The lesson I learned from all of that is to present their futures as wide open and up to them what will occupy their working hours in a few years. The Wonderful Husband and I have tried to be very open with them about the ups and downs of our jobs, as well as the variety of other jobs we’ve held over the years.

We think it’s important to let them know that every job will be a challenge, every job will have its ups and downs, and it’s also very important that you prioritize your work life with the rest of your life accordingly. Granted, we don’t always set the best examples, but we try to have honest conversations about it.

One of my favorite projects that all the kids have participated in in grade school is a career exploration project. They usually complete this in fifth grade, and E has recently started working on hers. A was no surprise at all when he ended up looking at careers in political science and law.

Four years later, as a freshman who is looking to build his college resume, he’s still talking about the same goals. Anyone who knows him will not find it hard to believe he’s interested in spending the rest of his life arguing about something. Even within subjects like law, though, we’ve encouraged him to think outside the box. Lawyers can be so much more than the “Law and Order” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” characters that we’ve come expect.

G’s choice of aeronautical engineering took me by complete surprise. Perhaps it is because a few years earlier, his “what I want to be when I grow up” collage had to do with becoming a naturalist or a wildlife officer. I do have a hard time picturing my wild and adventurous, always outside kid pursuing such a buttoned-up career, but when I asked him if maybe he meant to be an astronaut, I got the standard eye roll, and he said, “No, Mom, I want to build and design rockets, not fly them.”

I was even more surprised a few weeks ago, when I overheard a conversation during one of his classes about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Expecting to hear a continuation of the building rockets plan, instead, I got “I think I’d like to go into welding.” Mildly confused but knowing that there have to be some parts of rockets that are welded, I later circled back to the conversation with him. Certainly not to deter him, but just to see the G logic that went from conservation officer to aeronautical engineer to welder.

“Well, Mom,” he said, “after I worked on that badge at Scout camp, I thought it was pretty neat and I really liked doing it.” Score one for merit badges. Having had the privilege of eavesdropping on merit badge classes over the last year, I realized just how many unique career opportunities the boys have had the chance to explore. I also realized just how valuable the hands-on experiences that they’ve gotten over the years have been, and how much the online activities they’ve been working on instead are a poor substitute. Hopefully, this summer brings with it a return to the hands-on stuff that they benefit from so greatly.

So, back to E. We are still in the early stages of reviewing the career project. This is the first time that I’m getting to witness the process up close and personally, and I have to admit, it’s a little fun to play along with it and answer the questions myself. Right now, E is convinced she will be a future bakery or “bake shoppe” as she already refers to it because she’s fancy like that, owner.

The past year has really given her the opportunity to experiment and grow in the kitchen, and instead of boring her, it’s just gotten more interesting and elaborate. One of her favorite activities has become decorating cakes. Thanks to my good friend AD, who sent over a “so you’re bored during the first few weeks of the quarantine” bucket full of cake decorating supplies, this last year has seen her develop not only wild colors of icings and styles, but also a variety of flavors and textures. It’s been a great creative outlet for her, and the rest of us sure aren’t complaining about all the treats she’s made.

I still am encouraging her to think of other ways she can explore and do all the things she loves in the kitchen, besides her own business. It’s fun to think of other ways she can express herself creatively. One of her reignited interests over the last year has been designing new fashions for her dolls and her Barbies. She has also built them new furniture out of craft supplies. The other week, she was rummaging around in my catch all kitchen drawer. She ran off with four bamboo kebab skewers and returned a short time later with them holding up an elaborate canopy bed frame she’d constructed out of leftover supplies from A’s world history castle project.

In a way, this last year has been an interesting experiment for their future. As we’ve started to get back into somewhat normal activities, we’ve been slightly more selective about what activities we’re starting again. This last year gave us lots of time to think about what we missed and what we didn’t miss.

The value of a gap year has not been lost on me. It’s where I found the courage and the energy to challenge myself to try something new, and it’s a lesson that I hope I can remember in a few years when it might behoove the kids to take a year before pursuing an expensive education, or committing to a professional program, and explore the things that are worth keeping.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.