There are decisions in life that won't always be easy to make. And perhaps the most important decision, which we are, in my opinion, required to make way too early, is what you will do with the rest of your life.
Your career.
It's something that haunts us until we escape the realm of college, and even then we may not have escaped it fully.
From the time we can talk, our parents, aunts, uncles, friends of parents and even strangers have been drilling the same question into our malleable brains,
"What do you want to be when you grow up??"
I think that is half of the problem. "What do you want to be?"
From the beginning we are making our careers define us.
I am a doctor. I am a photographer. I am a student. Does that really define who you are?
So let's say that it does. How do you even go about deciding how to define yourself?
Our parents tell us that we can be whatever we want. We could be an astronaut if our heart so desired! Hell! We could all be heart surgeons if we want it badly enough! Right?
Ehh.... not so much.
Well, correction. Sometimes people do achieve the impossible, but the results... well that's another post entirely.
We are kind of set up for failure right from the beginning. We really believe that we can achieve anything. But then you arrive at your grand university and find that you really don't match up with others in certain classes and find yourself being weeded out by intro courses.
But wait! You were so skilled in high school! "My mommy told me I can do anything!" But some of us just aren't skilled enough in the areas required for becoming an astronaut or a brain surgeon.
And so, those childhood dreams go right out the window.
And we are back to square one.
So by this point you may have wasted a few semesters or maybe even a few years before you realize your chosen major really isn't for you. Hopefully you have really only been taking the pre-reqs and can use them towards your next major. But how do you even go about deciding what that should be?
You have had one mindset for so long, a picture of what your future will look like. And now you have to repaint.
So, how do you go about deciding what is the best for you?
Let me say from experience, that you have to do what makes you happy. Cliche? Probably. But it's the best advice I can give from one struggling student to another.
I have changed my major about four times now. I wanted to be a veterinarian from about the time I was being asked "what I wanted to be". I loved animals! So what better career than a vet!
So I came to the grand ol' University of Florida where they told me that Pre-Vet wasn't actually a major, but I could pick "anything I wanted to" (there's that evil lie again) and still do pre-reqs for vet.
Being the creative person that I am, I decided to go with Photography in the college of Art.
BIG MISTAKE!
I'm not saying that it's impossible, but it's definitely not probable for a working student who actually wants to have a life.
So after failing chemistry one too many times, I decided that I needed to just focus on the pre-vet and cut out all of the art courses.
Long story short, I went from Photography to Undecided and finally to Animal Sciences. And then I finally realized that it wasn't because of the art courses that I had failed miserably. I was just incompetent when it came to math and sciences.
So, I looked deep into my magic mirror and asked "Oh magic mirror, what will make me happy?"
And after really asking myself what I can truly see myself doing in the years to come, I decided on Photojournalism. (Ironic that I started and ended with Photo eh?)
And here I am today. And guess what? I am happy! Still struggling (Reporting's a total drag), but happy nonetheless.
So confused freshman and sophomores (I'm hoping there aren't any juniors and seniors), I guess what I'm trying to say is look into yourself and ask yourself what YOU want to do. Who YOU want to be.
Don't worry about what your parents want or what your grandparents want.
Your parents want you to be a lawyer but you really want to delve into theater? Go for it. It is YOUR life. YOU define it. Not your career and not your parents.
So as you go into this new year, keep in mind that what you may have planned for your future may not actually be the plan at all. Be open to change, and most importantly, be open to happiness.
Happy Studying!
xoxo
