Whenever you tell anyone you are in college, the next question that inevitably follows is, “Wow that’s great. What’s your major?” For some people, this question is a springboard by which they can gloriously jump right into detailing all of their elaborate life plans and goals which they are so earnestly pursuing. For the rest of us, who don’t pretend to have all of life figured out, we answer undecided, or with our most recent revelation of what seemed like a good life plan. But if we’re honest, we are just picking a major because of adults that breathe down our backs, pressuring us to make a life plan and to do it fast.

Choosing and sticking to a major puts an unfair amount of pressure on the student, and I think it takes away from what college is supposed to be. I am not advocating that we abolish college majors, but I think we need to alter the way we perceive them.

We perceive our majors as a means to an end. I major in biology so that I can go to medical school. I major in English so that I can become an English teacher. I major in business so that I can make money. The list goes on and on. No matter what major you select, if you analyze it at its roots, then you are using that major as a means to an end.

What happens next is truly a tragedy. Consider the classic story of the love-struck young man who wants to get the pretty girl’s attention. What does he do? He makes her jealous. How does he do it? He ostentatiously flirts with another less pretty girl hoping the really pretty girl will notice and become jealous. He simply uses the less pretty girl as a means to that end.

I am willing to bet that most everyone agrees the young man is doing a great disservice to both the less pretty girl and to himself. You see, when we start doing things as a means to an end we lose the value of the thing itself. Just as the young man had no value for any of the interactions with the less pretty girl.

Now, back to college majors. When we perceive our college majors as a means to an end, we lose our ability to enjoy the present. The love-struck man is in a state of miserable limbo while he waits for the pretty girl to notice him, and the same is true for us. We forget to take pleasure in the state of life we are in because we are more concerned about getting to the next one. It's almost as if we are just wishing we could speed up these four years so we could get our desired ends and start living real life. My friends, this should not be. We are here right now to enjoy where we are. Stop looking at the end and just enjoy.