I came into my university with high hopes of what I could do with the rest of my life, with my ideas ranging from owner of a cupcake bakery across the street from the ocean to CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation. The opportunities were endless, as they always are when you're young, and the world simply hasn't caught up to you yet. But however big or small the dream was, they all centered around one major: business.

Business to me seemed practical. The business school at my university is one of the top business schools in the South, guiding most students admitted here to come either for the business school or to get what we call here in the South the "M.R.S." degree. Either way, business seemed like the most versatile and useful degree to get after working so hard to get to the college itself. I could own a cupcake bakery or be a CEO if I wanted to — my options were endless as a business major. So, I decided to take a macroeconomics course fall semester of my freshman year. As a business man himself, my dad told me that macro was one of the most interesting courses he took and that whether or not I liked the class, it would be a good indicator as to how I would like the next four years of my life as an undergrad business major. Before the year had even started, I prayed over that one course and asked and pleaded desperately with God to please show me if business was the route I was supposed to go.

And boy, He showed up loud and freakin' clear.

I barely passed the class with a C, and I hated every second of it. The graphs made zero sense to me combined with the wording of his answers, and just when I thought I knew it, I would get it tragically wrong. I couldn't seem to make above a 75 on any one of his tests no matter how long I studied, and all in all, having never made a B, I was incredibly frustrated with a class I neither liked nor (apparently) could understand.

All I thought about business was that it was practical. I didn't like it or really even find it worthwhile or interesting. It just seemed practical. It seemed like a good degree to have from a good university and would make all those hours I had spent getting here to not be wasted on a flimsy degree. So when the time came, I struggled to let business go and to feel like I hadn't let all those years of studying go to waste.

I ended up changing my major to pre-law, opting to spend more years in school and to make less money doing something that would benefit others more than it would benefit me but would, ultimately, make my heart happy. I changed my undergrad to journalism to capture my love of writing, and I am making choices that will turn my life into a magical and whimsical series of beautiful events.

As the school year draws to a close, I am faced with the wide eyes of newly-graduated high school seniors awaiting all the opportunities that college has to offer and not knowing that the little choices now will be the ones that will impact the rest of their lives. I see that same look in the eyes of my younger brother, hoping to go to a good school in the next few years and do something to make a name for himself, and what I so desperately want to tell all of them is that if finance is your passion in life, go chase after it with your whole heart. If painting and music are your passions, no university or authority figure should make you feel as though it is a degree that you "can't do anything with."

Life has a funny way of always playing out exactly how it's supposed to, with the good, the bad and the ugly all making sense somewhere in between. You have only one life, and it should be filled with all the joys that you want it to have. So maybe you decide not to go with that major or decided you actually don't want to be a doctor like you told your mom you would, and maybe your house isn't as big as it would have been, but you love your little house and the bright yellow color you painted on the walls of the kitchen to match the bright yellow of the sunrise. And maybe you don't have that car that you would want, but you love the character it has and all the stories that come from it. If you don't start at your very heart, nothing else will follow in happiness. So do what you want to do with your one life, love what you do and all the joys of the world will follow in suit.