My blog posts on here have become kinda preachy and annoying. Hm. I think it's a symptom of my increasing awareness of my (less than) 6 months left of teenager-hood. I'm not quite sure how the time got away from me, but like five seconds ago I was 17 and not sure what to do with my life and now I'm quickly approaching 20 and (again) I have even less of an idea of what I'm doing with my life. You might think that as a sophomore (with a definitively declared major, no less), I would maybe have a hold on things. Ha, you guessed wrong there.
You'll find that declaring your major makes you feel slightly better in that, on paper, you know where your life is headed. However, your major isn't definitive in that it doesn't exactly tell you what you're going to do with your life. I mean, Miuccia Prada has a P.h.D in Political Science, yet she participated in the women's rights movement, was a Communist Party member, a mime, and is now a prominent fashion designer. What does that even say about our major decisions? I'll tell you what it says to me: to limit what you want to do with your life by what you study in college is crazy. Of course, there are practical considerations (money, which is sadly a joke to an English major such as I).
But I like to think (the semi-idealist that I am) that you should not be bound to work in the field you studied in college. Do what you love, what you're good at, or what you're interested in. I see so many people choose majors based on future economic success. Pre-med is disgustingly over-enrolled. I'm not saying there aren't those who would enjoy that route. I'm just saying, do something you love. Even if it's impractical. You'll learn something anyway, and you'll be a lot happier. If you can't do what you love in college, I say don't bother. But that's coming from the privileged perspective of someone who doesn't pay for college at all, I guess.
The semi-amended version of this statement for the not-so-idealists is try something new. Try something you don't know if you'll like, or something that doesn't go towards one of the many GERs or P/D requirements or major requirements. You have electives. You have room in your schedule. Believe me, even as a double-major I have room for electives. The GERs and P/D requirements will expose you to some pretty great stuff, but there's always another language to learn, a philosophical theory to study, or a historical period to explore. There's dance classes (yoga is something I've been eyeing for awhile), literature courses, and a culture or religion you know nothing about.
There's more to life than figuring out what you want to do as a career. It's important to figure out who you want to be as a person. And that's what college is all about for me.
And that actually ended up being only half-preachy!
Erica
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