By Josh Bashara
Some people know what they want to be when they grow up. Some people know from a very young age what they want to do. Others can be college graduates and still have no clue which direction they want to go. For those of us in school, and rapidly approaching the deadline of either picking a major or enrolling into continuing studies, the pressure is on.
Sometimes it’s hard to make a decision because you don’t want to make the wrong one. We’ve all heard of someone who had to change their major well into their junior year. It can add a lot of time to your stretch if you decide you want to do something else. Naturally, then, you want to make the right decision the first time around.
Also, if you’re a sophomore or junior and have absolutely no idea what you want to do in life, it gets a little discouraging to look at the big picture. Time is passing you by; your friends are talking about graduate school, and you’re still twiddling your thumbs with intro classes.
For some people, it can be enough to quit, to take some "time off" from school to figure out what you want to do. A dangerous trap to fall into, some may say, because one might get lazy and a little comfortable with his or her $28,000-per-year cubicle job (with opportunity for upward mobility) and never return to college.
Someone once told me (after telling them that I was going to major in
English), "English? Why the hell would you major in English? Everybody already speaks English!"
At first I laughed, but a little later, I thought about my soon-to-be-generic choice of a major, and wondered how useful it was going to be. I’m currently in continuing studies.
It really is a tough decision for those of us out there who have no clue what we want to do. Usually we have an inkling, or sometimes huge, ultimate goals that we want to accomplish, but we can’t decide which degree is going to help us achieve those goals. Sometimes they won’t.
But for those that will, there is help available.
Go to the Career Center. Go to your adviser. There really are a lot of resources out there to help, if you need them. Talk with friends about how they came to their conclusion. Ask yourself questions about what you want to get out of life. Weigh the age-old money versus happiness thing.
If all else fails, write down every possible major (excluding those you
would loathe) on a sheet of paper and tape it to the wall. Throw a dart at the piece of paper, then walk up and find out what you’re going to be doing for the rest of your life.
