As children, we are often presented with the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” As kids with very little life experience we would often respond with occupations such as a firefighter, artist or even an astronaut. We often don’t discover our true and realistic calling until much later in life.
Well, I’m here to tell you that even after 19 years, there is a chance that you will still have no idea what you are supposed to be doing for the rest of your life. As a college student, it seems like now is the time when you have to know the exact major or career path you see yourself pursuing after you graduate. My question to everyone else is: why is there so much pressure in declaring a major that could perhaps decide the rest of our lives?
I have always considered myself to be a good student. I have always shown up to class, and I never fail to turn in my homework or projects in on time. Growing up, I have never really been the type of person to hover toward a specific subject in school. The focus has always been more on completing the work and getting good grades in all of my different classes, that along the way I forgot to actually take a moment and reflect on what I was truly interested in. Sure, there were certain subjects that I enjoyed more than others, but I was never introduced to any career paths that could pertain to those subjects. The schooling leading up to college was so focused on giving me the workload to prepare for my collegiate future, that it never prepared me for the actual knowledge of career paths I could take relating to each of the subjects.
And now here I am. I am an undeclared college freshman searching for her long lost calling. Every day I walk amongst my peers who seem as if they have their next four years of classes planned, and an exact career in mind. The mere thought of these people my exact age having their entire life together while I simply have no idea which major, or better yet career I intend to pursue scares me beyond belief.
People will constantly emphasize that you need to declare your major as soon as possible for fear of getting behind. I never did understand how me, a nineteen year old college student fresh out of high school could be expected to pick a major that decided my whole future. When I get out of bed in the morning I hardly ever know what cereal to eat, and now all of a sudden I am expected to pick a major? Even though eighteen is classified as being an adult, each and every eighteen year old out there is far from being an adult. It’s as if all of a sudden we turn eighteen and we are expected to somehow know how to pay bills, lease a house and know what we want to do for the rest of our lives. We may legally be considered adults, but I am here to tell you that we all couldn't be further from it.
Even if we do declare a major upon first entering college and follow through with it for the next four years, what are the odds that you actually stick with it? We are most vulnerable in these college years to discover who we are and figure out what truly makes us happy. In some cases a person may discover themselves exactly at eighteen, while for others it may take until they are twenty-two or even thirty. How can you ask us to decide on the rest of our lives at such a young age?
When the time comes that you do finally deicide on a major, you may also have to deal with the critics that question whether that major is a logical choice for future careers. We are always encouraged to pursue our dreams, but only if those dreams are reasonable and can get you a job. How do you ever win in this situation?
To those of you who have known what they wanted to pursue at a young age – I look up to you. You are living proof that it is possible to find your one true passion in this world, and it may just take some people longer to find it than others.
My advice to all of you out there who have yet to discover their true passion is that it is going to be okay. It’s okay to not have your entire future planned in front of you, because let’s face it, you are still so young. You are going to make a million more mistakes before you find your niche in this world, and there is no point in rushing the process of self-discovery.
I know that one day I will discover what it is that I intend to pursue. That day may be tomorrow or even in a few years, but rather than rushing to decide on my future, I am going to focus on the daily actions of the present. The future will come, so there is no point in living for it.
