getting to your desired career

One of my favorite things about being young, single and brought up with many opportunities is my freedom. I've managed to reach this point in my life with all debt nearly eliminated, no inconvenient commitments to family, friends or otherwise, and the ability to figure out how to do nearly anything I wish to. "You can do whatever you put more mind to" has become a challenge to me.

I imagine a career where I am able to travel, help and learn from educators and students, and improve our education systems all around the world in order to improve our society of the future. But now, I sit with all this freedom and desire and no understanding of how to get there. I could choose to first become a classroom teacher or I could stay out of schools entirely and work through a community of educational alternatives, such as after school programs. If I choose to stay away from teaching, which programs? How do I gain respect in the educational world? Do I stay in non-profit or do I check out the corporate world? If I choose the teaching route, how do I go about it? Do I go back to school--undergrad, graduate? Do I choose a teaching certificate program? Which one-Teach for America, a teaching fellows? Where? Public, private, charter? Once I'm a teacher, how to I make sure I don't get stuck in the teaching career? Do I become an administrator? Do I stay in one location or travel around? How about teaching internationally? Do I step back and join life outside of schools again?

With all these choices, I don't know what to do. I don't know which avenue will be best for me or if I even wish to go through these fields to get to my desired job. I suppose we must accept that to get very far it will take many different jobs, a lot of schooling, time and money. I just never thought that the freedom to do anything would be such a challenge to figure out how to get to that anything.