It goes without saying that stress and pressure is normal in the life of a college student, whether it be at Harvard or Western Connecticut. With heavy workloads, trying to manage time between what you need to do versus what you want to do and a newborn freedom... the transition from high school to college presents itself as difficult to many students!

One thing that has resonated with me from the time I started my experience as a collegiate has been the intense pressure to declare a major. This all started back in high school, when your teachers would ask you where you wanted to go to school and what you wanted to do, personally I would always come up with something that I thought would satisfy them so I didn’t have to think about it too much. It was scary, mainly because I didn’t have any idea what direction my life was headed in. I could never come to understand how, as a 17-year-old, I was supposed to know where I wanted to be and what occupation I wanted to have as a 40 or 50-year-old. Only two years into college, and my major has changed almost four times. Is it wrong that I felt shameful to tell people my college major was undeclared, or “exploratory studies?” Here we are surrounded by all these people who know exactly what they want to do and are headed down their own path to success, and I’m still struggling to figure out what classes to take. At New Fairfield High School, where I attended, there was a course called “EMT,” designed to introduce students to the medical profession and give them a small idea of what it would be like to work with sickly or harmed people. I found this particular course to be so productive because it really gave students a good idea as to whether or not they could handle a career like nursing, emergency medical services, or anything in the field of human health. If more classes of this nature were offered to students before they even got to college, I think we’d all have a much better idea of where we see ourselves in five or even 10 years down the road. Of all the people I’ve spoken to, so many are lost and feel directionless when it comes to their major or future career, and they don’t know a solution to their problems. Yes, you can take a variety of different courses to try and separate what you like from what you don’t but can you do it in a timely manner? Tied in to this pressure of figuring out what you want to make of yourself is the idea that you need to major in something that will make you a lot of money. Getting a good job and a college degree has become something most people view as necessary for success, but it isn’t fair to say that you will be unsuccessful if you don’t pursue a career in something that is known to pull in a lot of money. Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, even Dave Thomas are just a few names of men who never even attended college but are worth billions of dollars. With the correct determination, ambition and dedication, you can do anything you set your mind to. Though the pressure is high to figure everything out, take your time because you cannot rush excellence. If you’re someone like me who has been fighting the battle of man vs. self, this is the only life you have to live. Do what feels right to you, take as long as you need to figure out who you are and never feel like there’s something that you can’t do.

The world is full of opportunity!