Maxim sat at his desk, staring at the open pages of his English textbook. The unit was about "The World of Jobs," but his mind was miles away from the vocabulary lists. In a few months, he would graduate, and everyone—his parents, his teachers, even the "Gdz" websites he sometimes checked—seemed to have an answer for him except himself.

One rainy Tuesday, his English teacher, Ms. Petrova, gave the class a creative assignment: "Write a letter to yourself ten years from now."

His father wanted him to be an engineer, citing the stability of the profession. His mother dreamed of him becoming a translator because he had a knack for languages. Maxim, however, spent his evenings drawing digital landscapes on his tablet.