Okay, fine, you caught me. Philosophy is my third major and I have no intention to pursue it as a career. However, it has been an integral part of my college career.

So besides getting a degree, everyone is always saying that college is all about “finding yourself,” or something equally vague yet catchy. There is definitely some validation to this claim. College is typically the first time we gain independence; we have to choose majors that will define our lives, some of us move out on our own for the first time, and we have to budget our time and money.

But I think instead of finding ourselves, we’ve started finding alcohol addictions and new ways to push responsibilities off. Because life is hard.

To intentionally mold and shape yourself into the person you wish to be is difficult—definitely more difficult than just letting life shape you. That isn’t to say there isn’t a foundational core of who you are that does not change. But there is also the way in which we relate to that world that can change.

Philosophy is one way to become intentional, and to intentionally choose the person you wish to be. To study philosophy, unlike most other studies, teaches you to think and to examine yourself.

Yes, it teaches you how to think. I can’t read Plato or Nietzsche or Kierkegaard and memorize it for a test. First of all, that is a lot of material to brute force memorize and the structure can be complex. But even more, by reading, discussing, rereading, and questioning you learn how to grapple with difficult ideas and make some sense of it. It’s not easy, but it is the easiest way to get through a philosophy class, so by taking said classes you get pretty good at thinking in this way.

So philosophy classes make you learn to think for yourself in a world where we often resort to parroting back information we hear elsewhere.

Then the subject matter itself can hit hard. Studying morality, you learn that there are several paradigms beyond your own. Then, if you are lucky like me, you get challenged by professors and peers to give justification behind why you believe what you do. The ideas I have about morality now are slightly different than when I entered college, and those that remained the same now have thought and reasoning behind them rather than just blind belief.

In this way, I’ve learned the necessity of thinking for myself and how to do so. Now, it doesn’t do everything. Intentionally being moral, kind, concise, and authentic in your dealings with yourself and others is hard because it requires constant mindfulness.

But because of my philosophy studies I am leaps and bounds ahead of my high school self. While the activity of improving myself and becoming the person I want to be is difficult, now I know how to do so and I know the person I want to be.

So maybe you can’t major in philosophy. But take a class. Read a book. Discuss philosophical ideas with your friends. Think and think about the essential concepts of life because it will give you a look at yourself and who you are than almost any other subject will.