In high school, it was pretty much expected that you were not supposed to have any clue as to what you want to do for the rest of your life. And that was okay. Some of your peers knew what their future plans were but they were vague. The real world was still far away and all that mattered at that point was getting into college. Yet, once you get to college, everyone now expects you to have your entire life figured out. It gets stressful because you now see all of your friends who have their majors planned out and know exactly what job they want when they get out of school. Your parents start to pressure you to pick a major that will pay well in the future and you are left flustered.
You worry that whatever major you choose will not be the right one for a variety of reasons. You preoccupy your thoughts with the nightmare of potentially staying in school for longer than four years. Even though you do not have a plan yet you are nonetheless expected to complete college in four short years. It is what everyone else is doing so, logically, it is what you should be doing, too. Trying to figure out exactly what you want to do is made even more stressful by the fact that you do not know what classes to take. Being undecided means no advisor and no help choosing courses that might lead you to the right major. You feel lost. You feel like you are drowning and you wonder why because it seems like everyone else is swimming just fine.
In reality, everyone is at least a little lost regardless of what their plans are. The aspiring lawyer who has planned out every step of their journey meticulously may nevertheless feel just as confused as you in your undecided, undeclared state. You are not alone in your confusion and you should not feel pressured to declare a major as soon as possible because that is a big decision. It is not a bad thing to take the time and test out a bunch of classes that you might be interested in. There are a lot of resources on your campus that may help you make this decision and you should not hesitate to use them. Even staying an extra year or two is not uncommon for people who need more time to figure their lives out. It is not frowned upon nor is it a bad decision to make if you need to.
You are young and should not be bombarded with questions about what you are going to do for the rest of your life until you decide to give out that information. Do not feel obligated to get your shit together just because your friends have already declared their majors. Everyone takes different amounts of time to find their calling, and some take longer than others. And that is okay. It is okay to not know, now matter how scary that may be.
