Every year, countless college freshmen are asked what they want to do with their lives. Each day, someone new asks them what their major is or where they want to work or how much money they plan to make per year. For any Plain Jane this would cause a fair amount of anxiety. For me, this might as well equate to asking me how I think I am going to die one day. Morbid, right?

I am only in the second semester of my college career, and I am already almost done with my major. For those of you that don’t know, I am studying Mass Communications. I was absolutely set on this being the ticket to my future success.
Step one: Get experience in the field for radio broadcast.
Step two: Get an internship.
Step three: Graduate.
Step four: Get a great job I love.

Unfortunately, even now when I am so close to the finish line that I can hear the people at the end shouting out my name, I cannot say with any certainty that I made the right choice. Every time I wake up in the morning I wonder if I will find a job. I question if I chose the right major. I think that maybe I should double major. Should I keep my minor? There is the possibility of two minors. Can I fit two minors? Can I fit two majors? The questions start pouring into my mind. Before I know it, I am sitting in another panic attack.

Finding a niche for yourself in life is hard enough, dealing with that responsibility when you suffer from severe anxiety is a whole other ball game. While tabling today, I heard a woman talking to her daughter about what fields to go into. The mother said something interesting that has honestly haunted me all day. She said, “Choose a lifestyle.” That makes my skin crawl a quite bit. It makes the life you can choose sound like a prison that you are locked in for the rest of your existence. It sounds like the death sentence. You chose a lifestyle. Now, you are stuck there forever. I cringe just replaying the words in my head.

Anxiety never made any “choices” I had easy to make. When I was younger, choosing which homework assignment to complete first made me feel anxious. Figuring out what to wear left me sitting in my room for over an hour trying to find something that looked “right.” Heck, I couldn’t even get stuck on a math question without wanting to hit my head against the wall. Having grown up a bit since then, I can honestly say choosing a major and sticking to it is just as difficult as those choices were back then. Each time someone new asks me what I want to do, I end up feeling more aimless. Every day that I feel I know what I want to double major in, someone new tells me why it is a terrible idea.

It honestly drives me insane. It gets to be so overwhelming that I do not want a major at all. If I had a dollar for every night of sleep I lost over majors, I would have a new flat screen. To all those out there who feel as if they are sinking under water about choosing their major, maybe we need to try a new approach.

The first step to destressing over the subject is to logically evaluate what jobs will come out of the majors you want to pursue.

The second step is accepting that, while you are aiming yourself in a general career direction, it does not mean you will pick one job and be doomed to it forever.

Step three is the part where you choose your lifestyle. This step is a bit tricky, because it does not mean choosing one job or position for the rest of your life; this step means asking yourself, “What do I want out of life?” Is it a family? Is it a job? Is it a house on the shore or a trailer in Alaska? Where do you want to work? For how long? Do you want to be close to your family or far from them? Choosing a lifestyle does not mean choosing your profession or career. If you asked me what lifestyle I would choose, my answer would be, “The happiest and healthiest one I could obtain.”

Lastly, it is nearly impossible to not listen to those outside voices when you are swallowed by anxiety, so while I cannot tell you to not listen to them, I can tell you to try to criticize where they come from to make an informed decision after you freak out a little bit. If the opinion came from a barista, they probably do not have the right skill set to assess your future career path. Personally, I got my negative evaluation from a primary school educator. They had good intentions, but they were a little too rude to me about it. In cases like this where the opinion comes from someone who might actually know what they are talking about, it is easy to want to wallow in sadness at the death of yet another major on your long list of majors to pursue. However, one thing that seems to help the most is to think about how you feel about the major itself. Do you enjoy the classes? Do the professors love their field? Are there other people in the major who have more experience that you can go to with questions? Is waking up in the morning for class pleasant? Do you love it?

Enjoying what you do is half the battle to combat the anxiety you feel over your possible confusion. Honestly, I am not sure if I definitely enjoy the major I chose. I am choosing to double major for a reason. I have a passion for helping other people. Your passions can guide you to the career you will love. While I cannot say for sure I have found my place in life in terms of a career path I adore, I can at least calm down a little bit knowing it is still out there and that I am on the hunt to find it.

Never let others keep you from doing what you love. If your anxiety attached to your major is because of people in your life telling you that you are making a mistake, tell them why you feel it is not, even if the only answer you have is to tell them that you love it. It is difficult to escape the anxiety caused over the topic of picking a major, but as one of my favorite movies states, “Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”