Your whole life, you’ve probably been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and until recently, you probably answered it with something like an astronaut, a firefighter, or a princess. Now that you’re older and in college, your answer might have changed a little bit because you realized how difficult it is to be an astronaut, how dangerous it is to be a firefighter, and how there’s no major in princess (trust me, I’ve checked).
Now that you have a more realistic idea of what you will do with your life, you’ll probably answer something like an engineer, a nurse, or a teacher. It seems like the exciting part of picking what you want to do is over and now you have at least 40 years ahead of you of having the same career, the same job, doing the same things. It’s definitely not what you imagined life would be like when you were asked this question at age seven. But the exciting part is yet to come. Now that you’ve figured out your goal, you get to figure out your path. And I say “get” as opposed to “need” very purposefully.
The exciting part of life now is having a realistic goal that’s so close you can taste it. Sure, it may not be an astronaut, but maybe it’s computer science. You’ve realized your passion and combined it with your skills to create a career path that’s unique to you. Maybe you do computer science for the rest of your life, but it’s something you enjoy and something that you chose hopefully because of your dedication to it.
The exciting part is just beginning because you get to learn about the ins and outs of your career of choice. Although college is difficult, it’s all worth it because after just four short years, you are supplied with the skills you need to be successful in your field of choice. You have the most freedom you’ll probably ever have in life because every choice imaginable is before you—all you have to do is take it.
Now, instead of being asked what you want to do when you grow up, you’ll be asked why you want to do that, or what you plan on doing with it. And hopefully you have a pretty good answer because out of all the choices in front of you, you picked this—whatever it may be.
So, yes, maybe you won’t get a degree in being a princess, but you can get a degree and a career in almost anything else. It’s not boring or depressing to think that what major you pick at the age of 18 or 19 could be what you do until you retire. It’s actually pretty inspiring that you could do exactly what you choose to do for the rest of your life.
