How do I know what to do with my life?

More on the subject of choosing your vocation from Buechner:

In the year that King Uzziah died, or in the year that John
F. Kennedy died, or in the year that somebody you loved died, you go into the
temple, if that is your taste, or you hide your face in the little padded temple
of your hands, and a voice says, “Whom shall I send into the pain of a world
where people die?” And if you are not
careful, you may find yourself answering, “Send me.” You may hear the voice say, “Go.” Just go.

Like “duty,” “law,” and “religion,” the word “vocation” has a
dull ring to it. But in terms of what it means, it is really not dull at
all. Vocare means “to call,” of course, and a
man’s vocation is a man’s calling. It is
the work that he is called to go in this world, the thing that he is summoned
to spend his life doing. We can speak of
a man choosing his vocation, but perhaps it is at least as accurate to speak
of a vocation choosing the man, of a call being given and a man hearing
it, or not hearing it.

And maybe that is the place to start: the business of
listening and hearing. A man’s life is
full of all sorts of voices calling him in all sorts of directions. Some of them are voices from inside and some
of them are voices from outside. The
more alive and alert we are, the more clamorous our lives are. Which do we listen to? What kind of voice do we listen for?