`The world can, at times, be a strange and unforgiving place. It doesn’t care how much you hurt, or how loud you cry. It almost seems like it wants you to be in pain, laughing at your agony. When things get to this point it is important to have a support system, it is important to have passions in life, it is important to have goals. But really above anything else, I believe that it is important to know who you are deep down as a person. Ultimately you will never be able to face the world by yourself if you don’t know that person who looks back at you in the mirror.

To those of you reading this now under the age of seventeen, this is the point you’ve probably given up on this article. You think you’ve got everything all figured out. You know what you’ll do with your life, and you know who you are. Sometimes things get complicated. People make jokes about college students falling into a monthly, weekly, or daily existential crisis. These aren’t always jokes. The world is a scary place. In ways that maybe you can’t grasp yet. But that is really okay.

For those reading this who know little, or nothing, about me I am a theatre major at UNLV. I fell in love with performing when I was in high school. But for the first 13 years of my life, I was a science geek. I had my heart dead set on becoming a paleontologist, yes like Ross from friends. When I finally realized that was not the best field for me my attentions shifted to writing. As I got into high school and started looking at colleges I intended to study English. Then a minor in theatre crossed my mind. Which turned into a double major, until eventually, the English fell away entirely.

At either of those points, I thought that I knew precisely who I was and what I was put on this Earth to do. Now that I am a bit older, I know that I don’t know what my life will look like. I don’t have a single clue. But I know that I am going to figure it out. I think that is the most important piece of the puzzle in terms of facing off with life. Having the courage to stand on your feet and say I don’t know.

Whatever life holds for me I know it will be a wild ride. And if you don’t have life figured out take a step back breathe and look around, because most of the people around you don’t either. “Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.” It’s okay. If you don’t believe me, I know you’ll come to see it on your own.