College is usually an exciting time in one's life. You meet new people, have new experiences that would not have been available to you otherwise and learn a lot about yourself and the world around you. But what about afterwards? After you receive the degree you worked four (give or take) years to receive, what comes next?
Many students attend graduate school after they have received their Bachelors, while others have a job waiting for them after graduation. There are some students, however, that do not have a plan outlined for post-college life. I am one of them. You would think that having just completed my junior year I would have at least somewhat of a clue as to what I planned on doing with myself after I completed my undergrad. Alas, my indecisiveness once again rears its head and leaves me clueless as to what direction my life will take next year.
This indecision is nothing new. When I first came to college, I was a biological sciences major with the intention of going into something medicine-related, like pharmacy. After a semester I realized something: although I liked chemistry and enjoyed learning about it, I was in no way cut out to pursue it as a career. Props to those of you who do because if I continued down that path, I would have lost my mind. After my foray into pre-pharmacy, I changed my major to "undeclared" and gave myself some time to think. I asked my mom what I should do, since moms know everything. She suggested I explore dietary nutrition, which seemed like a good idea until I learned the amount of science classes required for the major. I once again said, "no, thanks."
I was starting to worry that I wouldn't find a major I was truly passionate about. I went back to square one and thought about things I enjoyed. I remembered having taken a sociology class in high school, so I looked into the major requirements. I decided to give it a try, and now here I am, a declared sociology major in my final year of undergrad! In terms of plans after school, I'm not so certain. I thought about going to graduate school to obtain my master's degree in social work, but to be perfectly frank, the thought of more school on top of the four years I'm trying to complete doesn't sound the least bit appealing. If I do go to graduate school (and that's a big if), it won't be for a while. So it makes searching for a career not much easier. I would like to work with children or elderly people, but that's about as specific as I can get with what I want to do.
You're probably wondering what the point of me rambling about the past three years of my college career is. It's not so much for me to unload on you, the reader, the trials and tribulations of finding a major I liked, but also to hopefully be of comfort if you are also someone who is at a crossroads in their life. Maybe you know what you want to do but you're not sure if you can do it. Maybe you're like me, and have no plan after you walk across the stage and receive your diploma. I find it helpful knowing that I'm not alone in my uncertainty, and I hope you do too. Although planning for the future is important, sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in all these potential plans that we forget to live in the present. To quote "The Touchback," "The future is just a bunch of what you do right now strung together."
