It’s kind of unfair isn’t it? To ask a group of 17- and 18-year-olds what they see themselves doing for the rest of their lives. To take a shot in the dark and hope and pray that it was the right choice before you embark on a journey towards the rest of your life. There are so many unknowns, so many questions unanswered, and so much left to learn about yourself before you can be truly sure of what it is you are destined to do. However, there are those lucky few that take a shot and find that it was one of the best career decisions they could have made and for those like me, it takes a few years of learning to decide what it is you were truly meant to accomplish in this life.

There were so many different things I heard from people on how to go about choosing the perfect major. “Pick something that you enjoyed as a child.” “Choose a career that will be worth it financially in the long run.” The list goes on and on and while all of these are true, there’s a big piece of the puzzle that I discovered was missing from all of these comments—you need to focus on you; focus on who you are and what you want out of this life and who you would like to become. The rest will fall into place. If you’re anything like me, you may believe that you already have all of this figured out, but I promise you, life throws things at you that you never saw coming and many of these events alter who it was you thought you were at the moment. And with this change in self, comes a whole new focus on life and a clearer vision of what it is you want to accomplish in life.

So please high school seniors, be open to changing your major. Be flexible. Let life take you wherever it is you are meant to be and I promise one day you will wake up feeling happy and content with where you have ended up. Keep up the go-getter attitude and never lose sight of those big dreams, but don’t beat yourself up like I did if all of those big dreams and plans you’ve had since freshman/sophomore year of high school come crashing down. That’s just a sign that there is something far better and well-suited for you than you ever thought possible. Go out and live, try new things, take new adventures and meet new people because in the end, all of this shapes you into the person you are meant to be. Moral of the story? Take all of those pressures and comments from others about choosing the right major with a grain of sand. All good things come with time and it’s better to go off and explore your options early on rather than having a one track mind and finding out later in life that it might not be for you. Just live and learn and soak in all of the freedoms and possibilities—you’ll eventually end up exactly where it is you need to be.