Towards the end of senior year, my Spanish teacher dedicated a class towards talking about the "dos" and "don'ts" of college.
I remember the first thing she asked each of my classmates and I was to tell her where we were going to school and what we would be majoring in.
One by one we each told her what university we would be attending in the fall, or what or plans were after high school for that matter, and as she finally approached me I started to tense up.
Why was I so afraid to tell her that I was undecided about my major? That must be normal right? It didn't feel like it. Everyone else seemed to have their lives and futures planned out to the T. So I said, "I'm going to Binghamton and I'm undeclared." She came back at me and asked, "How old are you?" I said "18, why does that matter?"
She used me as an example to begin her lecture on college.
She told the class and me, when you are eighteen years old you are not supposed to know what you want to do with the rest of your life. There is no way to know where you will be in 5, 10, 20 years, and there is no need to stress. She reassured me that it was OK to be undecided now, and it was even okay to still be undecided after the first few semesters. I didn't need to declare a major. She understood where I was coming from, and knew it was hard to decide what to do when you are so young and still so unexperienced in the real world.
The following week I had a Dollars For Scholars award ceremony.
Again, at this ceremony we were supposed to accept our award on stage, say where we would be attending school in the fall, and tell everyone in the crowd our majors. I don't remember the exact number, but around 150 seniors accepted awards. Out of those 150, I was one of just two people to say they were undecided. The other person happened to be one of my best friends too. How did these 148 people already know what they wanted to do with their careers?
I've come to realize that there is way too much pressure to decide what you want to do way too soon. Whether this pressure is coming from parents, high school teachers, friends, or even professors, it just isn't fair. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 80 percent of students in the United States end up changing their major at least once, and a college student changes their major on average THREE times. It is so unbelievably common to change your major, and to be undecided. Clearly many students who thought they knew exactly what they wanted to do, did not.
I have friends who have already switched their major after one semester at school.
I have friends who have decided college wasn't for them. For me, after finishing my first semester of college, I am not any closer to deciding what I want to major in. And that's fine with me. I know I'll figure it out eventually. It may be this semester, and it may not be until next, but I have faith that I will find exactly what I am looking for.
So, to all of the high school students that are trying to figure out this whole college process, there is nothing wrong with choosing the school of your dreams, but still being undecided on what you want to do there. Trust me, half of your friends that think they know what they want really don't.
Don't get me wrong, some of them will thrive, but some of them have no idea what is coming.