After high school, if you're someone lucky who gets to go to college, friends, family and teachers will warn you that it's OK if you don't know exactly what you want to do in life. They also say on average, a college student changes their major/minor/area of study at least five to six times. I didn't believe it, but wow, was everyone right.
I'm a sophomore, about-to-be junior, criminal justice major at UCM with, as of right now, no declared minor. I fit the five to six times rule with my minor because I've gone from a sociology minor to Spanish; back to sociology; then onto forensic chemistry just to find out that program is being killed off; to biology, which I hated; to child and family development; to nothing. I don't know what I want to do with life anymore.
People urge me to attend the police academy here in Warrensburg, but the thing is that I don't want to be a cop anymore. If you're a close friend or a fan of my writing, you may have seen the article about my boyfriend Bob. Now, for sure Bob wants to be a law enforcement officer, but I don't think I could. Bob has been shooting a gun his whole life and already has a job lined up outside of college. I'm sitting over here with no promises and not a single clue on what career to have for the rest of my life. On top of everything, I'm a long-term thinker and there's no way that if Bob and I get married will I let my children have two police officers as parents. We will never be home as a family at the same time, something could go wrong on the job and law enforcement is super dangerous. I will not negotiate my role in my child's life, nor will I "copy" Bob and do the same thing as him. It's cool that we have the same interests and dreams (hence being together), but I want to figure out my reality.
As you can tell, I'm super into writing. Previously, I have been a co-editor of a professional CJ newsletter, and I will begin to write for the Muleskinner (our college's print newspaper) when I return for Fall 2016 classes in the lifestyle column. I intend on keeping this Odyssey position because it's made me realize I love writing as an outlet. So, in order to fix my dilemma, I will most likely add a communication minor onto CJ. But wait: Is that enough to be a journalist? I don't think so, and if I attempt to double major CJ + Communication, I will be here at school even longer and won't get to graduate with my real class of 2018.
People say that as long as you have a degree, someone will hire you, but then what's the point of having a major? I'm having a mid-life of my mid-life crisis. I'm 20 years old, and I can openly admit I have no clue what I'm doing. I may know who I am and what I like, but I'm struggling.
Thank god for summer because I need to time to figure things out. If any of you out there are having a college crisis, relax! One day you'll have an epiphany and know what your purpose is in life. It's OK to be in my shoes because college is all about decisions and trying things out to check if you like or dislike it. Breathe; it will all figure itself out.
