It's the age old question: what do you want to be when you grow up?
Your answer may be any number of things. As a child, I wanted to be an author; when I started high school, I wanted to be a heart surgeon; and by the time I graduated high school, I wanted to be a journalist.
Until recently, whenever anyone asked me what I intended to do with my journalism degree, I always said that I wanted to report for a newspaper. Journalism was one of the few industries that blended all of my interests, from writing to photography, and it was one of the only practical career options open to me.
I didn't believe anyone who told me that they ended up doing something completely different from what they thought they would. I had always thought that once you go to college and finished your general education classes, you had to chase after the one career path you had managed to define for yourself.
That all changed when I got my first internship this semester. I had applied for a ton of positions in a variety of communications fields, but the one I ended up getting was the outlier on my list: a marketing and communications internship.
Guess what? I love it. I've done well enough in my internship that I'm going to be staying with my company at least through the summer, and I now intend to pursue a career in marketing and communications.
With 116 hours of my 150 hour double degree credit program complete, it doesn't make sense for me to switch either of my majors now. The good news is that the skills I've gained in my journalism and writing and rhetoric courses are applicable to my new desired career path.
Just like so many of the people who told me their life brought them to a completely unexpected career, I'm going to pursue a career that I never thought I would enjoy.
Here's the thing— there's no way for you to know what kinds of jobs you are going to enjoy until you try them. Even if you've found a job you like, you may later try something different and discover you like that even more. You just don't know until you get out there; I never thought I might like marketing, but it turned out to be a field that uses all of my skills in a really fun way.
Try a lot of different jobs, internships, and activities while you are in college. You may think you are totally set on doing one thing for the rest of your life, but you might find out that one thing isn't completely right for you. Don't be afraid to apply for that internship that is only loosely related to your major. It might turn out to be something you really like.
Go for it.
