In Kindergarten, they ask you what you want to be when you grow up. My answer at five years old was that I wanted to be a police officer like my dad. In sixth grade, they ask you again. This time I said I wanted to be a lawyer, because I had discovered I’m pretty good at arguing and negotiating to get my way. When the time came to graduate from eighth grade and move up to high school, my counselors started expecting a real answer. How was I supposed to know what I wanted to do with my life for the next 50 years at 14?
Throughout high school, advanced classes, sports, clubs, orchestra, and an incredible amount of stress related to each of those things, I really started to think about what I want to do, or at least what I wanted to major in when I got to college. When junior year came to a close I knew I wanted to major in psychology. I started to visit campus after campus, and it suddenly became real. I thought the biggest decision I had to make was where I wanted to go to college. That was the easiest part. I knew from the moment I stepped onto St. John Fisher College’s campus that it would be my home for the next four years, and when I got accepted, I thought I had made it through the hard part.
When students start college, the first things they ask you at orientation are your name, where you’re from, a fun fact about yourself, and yup, you guessed it...your major. For me, that answer has always been the same: psychology and criminology double major. But for my roommate, people in my classes, and students all over campus that answer was undecided.
Even if you have decided on a major or two, the next question they ask is what you want to do. What field do you want to enter? What’s your plan for a career?
Parents, counselors, teachers, and strangers start asking kids at five years old, or maybe even younger, what they want to do with their lives. They start pressuring us at such a young age that we feel like a dud if we don’t know what we want to do by the time we graduate high school.
I’m writing this article to tell current high school students, students starting college, and maybe even seniors in college or graduates that it’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do. Change your major, and change it again another five or ten times. You’ll figure it out eventually. To anyone who says differently, it’s none of their business. Ignore the pressure and enjoy your time in high school and college. Yes, grades are important but they don’t define you or your future.
