You make it to your senior year and the questions start rolling in. Where are you going to college? What will your major be? What are you planning to do with that major? Don’t you want to be rich? Why that major? How many scholarships do you have? Why are you going to that college? Who will your roommate be? They just keep coming and finally you just want to scream at the people “I HAVE NO IDEA, OK?” You get to high school graduation and before you walk out everyone is talking about their plans for life and you are just standing there like “y’all wanna get pizza after this?” Everyone looks like they have everything planned out to their thirties and you can’t even say what you are doing next Thursday and the panic sets in. As Pomp and circumstance starts to play, and everything seems to be caving in on you, you sit on the stage white faced. But that’s OK.
College prep will be the most stressful part of your life. When you get the application for a college it has all these blank spaces that you’re having to ask mom about, like what is my social security number, what would you say my strengths are, which selfie should I send this one school, and should I put in awards that spelling bee I won in second grade? It becomes overwhelming with the applications and the scholarships and the interviews for the scholarships and they all want to know the same thing: what do you want to do with your life? Let me tell you, it really doesn’t matter once you get there. Once you get to college all they care about is what can you do while you are here. Can you draw a carbon atom? When did the civil war start? What part of the brain controls emotion? Your first day of class will not involve the English teacher walking in and asking you what your ACT score is.
Your first year at college will also change you. You go in with your hopes and dreams of being a world renowned surgeon and you go into your first summer as a teaching major. You will kick yourself because you think you gave up on your dreams. It is OK to give up on your dreams because your dreams sometimes aren’t even your dreams. From a young age, we have it drilled into our heads that you have to be a doctor or lawyer or fortune 500 company owner to be rich and to be happy. We are in these certain times that only these certain degrees can make us this certain amount and this simply is not the case. In college, you will hit roadblocks. That road block may be failing an essential class or not being able to get an internship or job in that field. Those might be your little hints to move on, and it will hurt but you’ll end up happier.
Do what you love still applies in today’s hectic world. We act like being millionaire will make us completely happy, but if you are an outdoors person, is working at a desk your whole life going to make you happy? So do not sit at your desk and plan out every aspect of your life because that could change tomorrow for the better.
