Model answer
Written by 8020 teachers. Do not memorise it — take the structure and the way ideas are developed, then speak about your own life.
My younger cousin came to me a few years ago, right before she had to submit her university applications, completely torn between studying medicine, which was really her parents' preference, and something in graphic design, which was clearly what she actually wanted to do, based on every conversation we'd ever had about it. The situation was that she'd basically talked herself into believing medicine was the responsible choice and design was just a hobby that had gotten a bit out of hand, and she wanted someone outside the family to tell her she was making the right call. What I actually said probably wasn't what she expected — I didn't tell her which one to pick. I asked her to imagine herself five years into each path and describe an ordinary Tuesday, not the exciting bits, just a normal working day, and to notice which version of that Tuesday she felt something about. I think that reframing mattered more than any direct advice would have, because it took the decision out of the parents-versus-me framing she'd got stuck in. She ended up choosing design, though not immediately — she actually did a foundation year in general sciences first, partly to reassure her parents, before switching. Whether she followed my advice exactly, I'm not sure, since I never told her what to do in the first place, but she still credits that conversation as the moment she stopped treating it as a binary choice, which I suppose is the most useful thing advice can actually achieve.