Every adult I meet asks me the same series of accusation-like questions when they hear I’m in college. “What’s your major? What are you going to do with that? What career are you going into? Don’t you have a plan?”
The answer is simple: I don’t know. I only have a few vague ideas about what I want my life to look like. I can’t even tell you what continent I will be on in five years, much less what my job title may be. I have no idea. And that’s okay.
I am a 19 year old who just finished her first year at a great school. I have a good work ethic, a positive attitude, and I am intelligent. I am going to be fine. No, I don’t know where I will be twenty years from now. No, I have not figured out the exact career I will stick myself with for the rest of my life. I don’t have all of the answers to all of the questions, but really who knows where their life is going before they’re even of legal drinking age?
Sure, there are some very practical children who have known they wanted to be a doctor or an architect or a teacher their whole lives. But there are hundreds of thousands of other jobs out there, most of which we have never even heard of. I could do anything with my life. I could bounce between a dozen careers before I’m thirty. I could put my career on hold and backpack across Europe. I could even dedicate all of my time to fulfilling all of my childish dreams of having grand adventures and meeting exciting people.
The God’s honest truth is that all I know about my future is the field I want to go into -- and I only know that in the broadest sense of the word. But even if I had no earthly idea what I wanted to make of myself, I would still be fine. I have a good head on my shoulders and I am a reasonable person. I am not going to blow all of my savings on a plane ticket to some obscure country so I can escape my troubles. I am going to be just fine, even if I can’t answer any question that adults would like to know.
I don’t know what I’m doing with my life, but that’s okay. So please, I know you mean well, but just stop asking.
