I remember how excited I was when I finished eighth grade because I had officially completed the last obstacle before arriving to the magical land they all called "high school." However, the second I stepped foot into high school, I was hit with a harsh reality--high school came with extreme expectations. Each year spent in high school turned into another year closer to college, another year closer to the real world, and another year closer to being an adult. Only two years into high school and I was being told that I needed to start looking at colleges--but they couldn't just be any colleges, they had to be complete with a good reputation and competitive in the specific major I wanted to pursue. I didn't know what major I wanted to pursue. Do you see the problem?
By junior year, I was overwhelmingly surrounded by people who wanted to be this or that major and to pursue this or that job for various reasons. I sat silently through conversations with people who described what they were going to do in and past college. But the biggest problem was that I completed high school courses that never excited or interested me, which led me to believe that I had no true academic passion.
Constant questions about what major I wanted to do, what degree I wanted to earn, and what I job I wanted to pursue came from all directions--peers, friends, parents, family, teachers, and advisors. While staring at college applications, I was originally hesitant about applying without a specific major but I also didn't want to blindly choose. Despite my worries, I decided that rather than choosing a specific major, I wanted to study an area as a whole first.
When you arrive to college, the typical beginner questions are "What's your major" and "Oh that's cool, what kind of job would you have then?" For me, and to a decent amount of others, my answers are simple; I don't actually know yet. Yes, some people judge you when you answer with that, but mostly they're just worried for you since you don't seem to have your entire life planned out at the age of 18 or 19 (how dare you not know yet!). Please don't worry, I got this. I have been at college for almost a semester now and I can honestly say that I have discovered interests of mine that I never knew about in high school, things that make me excited and interested. I've found interests that I get to turn into minors, even though I am still trying to figure out my major.
A lot of people are lucky enough to be able to talk passionately about their desired job and future direction of their life, but I am not one of those people. For me, I am grateful I came into college without a specific major because I am still trying to learn what I am good at, what I can be good at, and what I suck at since I personally didn't discover this in high school. I do have goals and expectations for myself, I have ambitions and I am definitely not lazy, I just need a little bit more time to figure out what I am passionate about.
I am a freshman in college and still have no clue what I want to do with my life, but I decided that it's perfectly okay.
