In the year of 2016, many of us, as college students, can feel the pressures of picking a major that is approved by our parents, grandparents or significant others and their parents. The idea of going to college is expensive so therefore we are expected to pick a major that will bring us wealth. They say become a doctor or a lawyer, or maybe you should be an engineer if you don’t like those. Also, let us not forget the expectation to go get our masters and doctorate degrees as well, piling onto the debt.

Us college students, ages of seventeen/eighteen to twenty/twenty-one feel the pressures of doing what we love and doing what our parents want. Do you feel stuck there? You love to dance and you have since you were four but your parents say you cannot make money doing that so instead you are majoring in psychology; what happened to the passion for dance? You have played football since you were old enough for peewee and now you sit at a Division One school in the stadium seats because your parents want you to focus on that computer science degree; what happened to the passion for football?

It is 2016, you are seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, maybe even twenty one! What are you doing?! We love our parents, of course, and we spend most of our lives trying to make them proud of us but it is our lives; it is your life. It is time for you to follow your dreams.

So I posed the question, when is it time to follow your dreams? If you’ve been looking for that answer, for that sign to drop this major and start a new one, here it is; it is time to start following your dreams now.

I understand what courage it takes to tell a parent who doesn’t understand your passion as a career that this is what you are doing for the rest of your life. I have the goals to be a musician on Broadway. I have had the “Phantom of the Opera” as my pick since the seventh grade in middle school. That was also the year I told my parents I’d be auditioning for LaGuardia Arts in Manhattan, a school that focuses on the arts, to continue to study clarinet. With an understanding mother but a hesitant father, I took the leap anyway. “Do you realize that musicians make no money? You’ll have to struggle forever you know that? So are you even going to college?” NEWSFLASH! I am aware, I always was, the way I saw it though, at the age of twelve, I love music, I love it unlike anything else. I was good in school, really good; I liked math and English but I loved music. At the age of twelve, I knew these plans could fall through and I was ready to work two part-time jobs to get where I needed to be to just keep playing. I still feel that way.

Now here I am a freshman at Montclair State, I major in Music Education with a Concentration in Clarinet, and I also play the saxophone. I plan to receive my masters after finishing this five-year program. I have played Carnegie Hall four times in my life, I have played in Disney World six times, I have played with some of the greatest musicians, I have learned from them and my resume is full of great opportunities I was able to talk advantage of pursuing my dream. I wake up every day happy and full of life because I know I don’t have to sit at a desk and do work that is boring, or that stresses me out. I get to look forward to making music with other people and feel good.

Stop and think for a second. Yes, your parents might be mad for a moment. Yes, they might stop paying for tuition. Yes, they might tell you how wrong you are and yes, they might be going crazy but you get to wake up doing what you love. You will never sit at a desk again questioning “what if?” You will never have to look back on your passion and think “the good old days.” You will never have to think of the life you could have had if you chose to make that stride. We are adults, we make our own choices in life now. Our parents are no longer in control. There’s a difference between you and me.

Yes, I have college loan debt, my parents help a little but aren’t rich to just pay for college, I know getting a job is hard so I major in something as my backup career but still involved in what I love and I am happy every day through late rehearsals, not study sessions and long hour of work because I love what I am doing with my life. I know I am going to struggle for money for a bit but I get to make music. You probably sit there thinking what if? What if I made that leap? You may be really stressed and it doesn’t pay off because you could care less about your major. You feel unmotivated and do not have much excitement except to just graduate so you are done with this. You may wake up feeling upset or annoyed to sit in that lecture to learn about a topic that doesn’t interest you at all.

I am here to tell you, follow your dreams. We are only young once. Just like high school ended so soon, college will too and before you know it, you will be married with kids and you won’t be able to follow your dreams. Do not regret missing this chance. Do something you love and don’t be at that desk wondering forever. You may fall and you may struggle and it might really suck for a while, but at least you did it; at least you had the courage to take the leap to follow your dreams. It’s time to do what you want in life, not what anyone else wants.