As if the idea of college is not stressful enough, figuring out something practical that you love and would enjoy spending the next fifty-five years doing is even worse. With colleges having even more majors than ever before, the pressure to decide is even greater. Your parents will always have a comment or some 'new idea' that you should major in and the relentless family members will always be eager to hear all the 'amazing accomplishments' and about the blueprint of your life. And a lot of times they only make the transition into adulthood worse.
As a current second semester junior, who finally found and declared my major about a week ago, I have some advice for you:
1. Do NOT freak out. I will say it again for the people in the back: DO NOT FREAK OUT. In college you will meet every type of person that the world has to offer: that person who os ALWAYS prepared for every single event, the ones who somehow were able to blueprint their entire lives in the past 20 years, and the ones who you would not expect to be at college but are... doin' it. Unless you know going in what you want to do, chances are you will change it at least once during the process of college. Colleges and universities have so many amazing services to offer, such as career counseling and job shadowing. They will help you find something you like, because at the end of the day, they do not want to loose the money that you are paying.
2. Do not give in to peer pressure. There will be so much pressure of the classes and finding classes with substance to take. Your friends, if you make them (KIDDING OF COURSE!!!), might pressure you about finding a major or that you NEED to decide because if you don't the whole world will end. Just take a deep breath. Your adviser will be with you the entire way. Advisers can be immensely helpful if you work with them. They can be a great resource however, I always found it best to laugh at situations where not having a major comes up, hopefully that will work for you too!
3. Impulsively join shit. I'm not even kidding. Join clubs, take a job, do anything that you have somewhat interest in. THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FIGURED OUT MY MAJOR. One day, I was on Odyssey, yes this site, and stumbled upon the apply button. Having little experience writing and a lot of questions as to why I was applying, I impulsively filled out the application and waited patiently, and by patiently I mean checking my email every day for a response. Finally, a response pinged my inbox late one night over winter break. Like I said prior, I had very little writing experience aside from educational assignments so to say this was a new thing to me was an understatement. After about a month I realized how much I actually enjoyed it! I was pleasantly surprised and incredibly happy about my new found interest. It is so amazing how you can find yourself in something small insignificant.
Moral of this article is that things will be ok. You will figure out what you want to do at some point. Take it from me, the girl that is one semester from her senior year and had no idea what she was doing with her life until now.
