We enter college at only 18 years old, and we are expected to know what we want to do with the rest of our life. I don’t even know what I want for dinner half of the time and I’m expected to know what I want my career to be. Friends and family kept telling me “Oh, you will have all of the time in the world to figure it out,” and last semester I realized I didn’t.
I came into college being business undecided because I felt as if I had to start somewhere. I took some core business classes and always found myself studying extra hard just to get a decent grade and constantly being uninterested. It was not until my spring semester of freshman year that I took legal studies as an elective. I instantly fell in love with the class, found myself intrigued and eager to learn.
Despite how much I loved this legal studies class, I still remained in the school of business. By the end of freshman year, I had already switched majors twice. I went from being business undecided to business management and then to finance. I could not even tell you why I switched my major to finance when I absolutely hate math and numbers, but I wanted a career that would pay well. Working on Wall Street and earning a large income did not seem like a bad idea at all.
Well, I could not have been more wrong. I took my first finance class (a three-hour-long night lecture) and absolutely dreaded going. I didn't even want to look at my homework, and I could not stand my professor (he was an ass). That is when I realized I should not be studying something that I am not passionate about. To be honest, I could not have cared less about finance or even business.
I knew where my heart and mind wanted to be and that was changing my major to legal studies. After switching my major (I guess third time's a charm) I became instantly happier. My grades have gone up tremendously and I actually enjoy school now.
But, here is the catch.
I switched my major right before going into the spring semester of my sophomore year and thank God I didn’t any later. I had all of these business credits that have built up for the past year and a half, and if I switched any later I would have been stuck with finance. Now, I have to take two online summer classes just so I can be all caught up with the classes that the College of Arts and Sciences requires.
I did not have “all the time in the world” to figure out what I wanted to major or in or what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was almost stuck with something I hated.
Knowing what I know now, I should have switched my major to legal studies the second I knew how much I loved it. Study something you are absolutely passionate about or else you will be waking up every single day for the next 30-40 years hating your life because your job is miserable. Business just was not for me and I should have just accepted that and moved on.
Do not feel pressured into studying a certain major just because your parents want you to have a certain job or because some of your friends know what they want to do.
It is OK not to have a plan.
It is OK not to know what you want to study right away.
Take as many different classes as you possibly can throughout college because you never know where it may lead you.
