By Foster Nicholas | Reporter
Figuring out what to do for the rest of your life while in college isn’t much different than asking a 12-year-old what they’ll want for Christmas when they turn 17. It’s nearly impossible to actually predict what the future looks like, yet students seem so fixated on needing to know what they will be doing when they are out of college instead of just enjoying it.
As a 12-year-old, I loved sports and movies; I would ask for baseball cards and cool shirts from movies I had seen. When I was 17, I received a sweatshirt and a notebook for Christmas, and I couldn’t have been happier. Twelve-year-old me would have never envisioned what I would actually like for Christmas in five years. However, it’s silly that this is the perfect analogy of a college student. Students come into their first year of college thinking they already know what they want to do for the rest of their lives, when in reality, they will change all throughout college and their vision of their future will look very different after graduation.
My advice would be to enjoy college and stop stressing about the future. Take classes you’re interested in, even if they aren’t required for a major or prerequisite. Make friends, and spend time doing what you like. The craziest part about the future is that you are influencing it every moment that you spend in the moment. So as you live your life through college, your path for the future will become clear.
On average, a college student changes majors at least once before graduation, and there is an equal number of people who change majors even two or three times. It’s extremely rare to know exactly what you want to do your freshman year or even sophomore and junior year. It’s absolutely OK to follow interests or passions that come throughout college, and the only way to find those is through experience.
When students look back on themselves as kids and think of all the things they received for birthdays or Christmas, they will see the development of their lives. The same can be said for a student as they move through college. The evolution of a student includes exploring interests and spending time figuring out what to do after they graduate. In a perfect world, students wouldn’t have to worry about what their life holds until after graduation. Unfortunately, it isn’t like that. However, the longer someone has to be worry-free in college and fully explore themselves, the clearer their future will be.
