Some people seem to have their life figured out in high school. They know exactly what they want to do, what college they’re going to go to, what they’ll major in, and what job they’re going to have when they’re done. Everyone that isn’t sure what they’re doing hates that person. I was that person, but my plan is no longer what I’m doing.
I have always wanted to be a vet, specifically for horses. I loved biology and horses and I excelled in classes that were aimed towards what I would need for this career, I was good at science and math. I choose what colleges I applied to based on whether they had either an amazing pre-vet program or some kind of equine studies program. I was going to major in animal science and minor in equine studies.
And then I actually started college. From the beginning, I was doing better in gen ed classes than major specific classes, but I just told myself it was because they were harder. I had more motivation to do my homework for my psych class than my animal science class. The thing I had always wanted to do and had always been good at was no longer something I wanted to do or something I was good at. I had no idea what else to do, so I just stuck with my plan. I didn’t change my major and I didn’t make any changes to the classes I would be taking. I proceeded as if I still wanted this as badly as I had a year ago.
Over the summer, my friend ended up recruiting me to write for the Odyssey, and the love I’d had for writing when I was younger was reignited. One of the gen ed classes I was in for the next semester was a creative writing class and I got back into writing fiction. I found something I was passionate about in a way I was no longer passionate about my planned life. The plan needed to change, and changing from something pretty stable, animal science, to an unstable arts degree, creative writing, was scary. But I’d rather leave my plan for my life behind than do something I wasn’t passionate about.