You're eight years old. You carry around a notebook filled with stories. They're all written in crayons of different colors. You don't share them with anyone. When someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up, you tell them you want to be a vet or a marine biologist. That's what everyone else says. And besides, you're eight, you don't even now that your stories could turn into something bigger. You don't know that writing could even be a job. 

You're fifteen years old. Your favorite class is English. When people ask you what you want to be when you grow up you tell them that you want to be a writer. You get mixed responses. People tell you that that's more of a hobby, or that you'll never be able to make a living with that. 

You're seventeen and filling out applications for college. You apply to be an english major at all the places with the best programs. You tell people this and there are two responses you get. 1. "Oh, so you want to be a teacher?" And 2. Awkward silence. "So, what do you want to do with that?" 

All your friends are doing something more exciting. Biochemical Engineering. Neuroscience. You fade into the background with your english degree plans, hoping that you're making the right decision. 

I don't know about you, but this was when I started to doubt myself. The summer between high school and college I changed my mind a lot. I shifted from english to science and back to english again. I ended up going to a community college for a degree in biochemistry. Both my parents were chemists so I thought that I could make it work. Having a steady job after graduation seemed better to me than doing what I actually wanted to do. We push aside what we really want in fear of never finding a job, in fear of being in debt forever. 

I tried to like chemistry, I really did. It didn't work out, I spent the first semester miserable. I came out with failing grades and no hope for my own future. I had tried to succeed but I wasn't happy. The classes weren't interesting and my motivation disappeared. 

After this, I took a year off and my dreams died off. I couldn't imagine going back to school. I couldn't transfer because of my bad grades and I couldn't do well where I was. I was stuck between doing something I hated or doing nothing at all. Neither of these options were good for me. I tried to go back to school for english. I decided maybe I could be a teacher. 

The cycle repeated itself, this time with better grades. I was still unhappy, and I wasn't doing what I wanted to be doing. I was sitting through classes about teaching others when I wanted to be in workshops, working or stories, sharing them with the world. I dropped out again, miserable with my own life choices and stuck with the feeling that there was nothing else I could do. There was no going back and fixing those mistakes. I was stuck with a pile of student loan debt, and no where to go. 

That was about the time I found Full Sail University. On the brink of giving up completely I found a school with a high acceptance rate and a major that fit everything I wanted. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Creative Writing for Entertainment. Exactly what I had been looking for. I applied and moved nearly a month later, finding myself surrounded by other students that wanted the same thing that I did. 

I went from english to chemistry to creative writing in the biggest rollercoaster my life has seen so far. But I found happiness after finding the biggest failure. 

If I learned anything from this experience it's that you should do what you really want to do, no matter what other people think about it. If you're in a major that is believed to be "useless" or people tell you you're never going to find a job, don't listen to them. If you are passionate and you are happy with what you're doing, you'll find a way to make things work after graduation. And for me, I'm not worried about the future. I'm just happy to be happy right now.