I will preface this article by saying I am being a little dramatic. I know that it’s OK to not know what I want to be when I grow up right now. I know that most people end up with jobs in completely different fields than that of their degree. I know that just because I have to declare a major at the end of this year, that doesn’t mean I am tied to one field of study for the rest of my life. But honestly, I kind of feel like being a little dramatic! Lately I have been frustrated, not at myself or at the institution of higher education, but at the idea of not knowing where my life is going. Wouldn’t it all be easier if I knew I wanted to be a doctor? Or if I just knew I wanted to be a teacher and went to class everyday excited at the thought of a future involving cute little kids and arts and craft projects? Truthfully, I don’t know if it would be easier. It probably wouldn’t, but right now anything feels easier than being undecided.

This semester I’m taking two Studio Art classes, a Social Psychology class, an Identity and Inequality Gender Studies class, and a Creative Writing class. While I am technically still a declared “Exploratory” student, I feel like I am far from finding my academic niche. I like Art, I like Social Psychology, I like Creative Writing, and I like my Gender class. I like everything!!! And it’s starting to get annoying because I can’t do everything. I want to leave college knowing that I have an educational foundation strong enough to guide me throughout the rest of my life, be it in my career or in my general ability to remain an intelligent and happy person. The other week, I began to worry. Am I wasting my time taking all of these classes I like but don’t love? Hellooooooo Universe: *cough cough* Where is that major that is made for me?

So what now? I am still undecided and I have to declare at the end of this year. Do I pick something I like and just stick with it? Do I pick something that I don’t love but will provide me career and job opportunities on a wider scale? Do I play it safe or do I wait it out until I find my “thing”? Is it normal not to have a passion for any of the majors offered? All of these questions are exhausting. A lot of the time I feel like college isn’t for me. I love school; I always have but I just haven’t been able to feel a passion here like I thought I would. Given the option to explore all the options that Tulane has to offer, I am stuck at a crossroads.

I don’t know the answer to any of the questions I am asking. And the purpose of this article wasn’t to say that I do or to try and figure them out in the process of writing my thoughts. Frankly, I probably won’t ever know the answer to the question of how people end up where they do, and I have to realize that I am definitely not alone in that. So I hope everyone reading this who is in the same position figures out their passion and maybe one day we’ll end up at the same office desk job or in completely opposite fields following our dreams that we don’t know exist yet.