Help, I Want to Change My Major—But to What, I Don’t Know!

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s a question that’s haunted me since pre-school when I confidently answered, “Doctor!” because my dad told me that they made a lot of money. In elementary school, I would say I wanted to be a ballerina, because I liked the tutus (even though ballet was my least favorite form of dance), and early in middle school, I would respond, “Teacher,” because I really just wanted to spend the rest of my life at school. But even as I answered the constant questioning, I never really had confidence in what I said, and I was jealous of my friends whose answers of “Nurse” or “Journalist” had never changed.

As I’ve gotten older, however, my answer to the question—which I always assumed would eventually become clear—has gotten more and more convoluted, and I have gotten more and more confused. I love math and English equally, and my favorite classes have been physics and French. I like spontaneity, but in reality, I thrive with structure. I hate public speaking, but I love person-to-person interaction. This past summer, whenever someone asked me what I was going to major in at college or do after I graduate, I would give everyone a different, but specific, answer, mostly depending on my mood and whatever career path I was randomly researching the night before as I pretended to have my life together.

One of my high school teachers frequently described me as a multipotentialite, but I never really understood what this meant—having a label has just made my decision more and more confusing. I know I could do well in multiple fields, but that makes deciding on what I want to do in the future so much more difficult.

Personality tests online and throughout school have told me that I should be a librarian or a teacher or an accountant or a policewoman (that is the only option I know will not be happening). Every career seems too repetitive or seems to have too few job options, so even with all this research, I cannot ever see myself making a decision on one single thing that I would be happy doing for the rest of my life.

Last semester, I was so excited about my 300-person Intro to International Relations class, and I loved talking and getting to know all of my classmates, so I went ahead and declared a major in the subject I thought I could see myself studying for the rest of my life. However, this semester, I’ve been less enthusiastic about my History of International Relations class—which is taught by an amazing but slightly pessimistic professor—and it has caused me to question everything that I was so suddenly confident about last semester.

Luckily, however, I’ve recently had an epiphany. I am probably going to change my major or at least double major. I probably will never know for sure what I want to do because I am passionate about so many things. I always look forward to my microeconomics lecture, I love watching movies for my French Film class, I can’t stop planning events for Dance Marathon, and I couldn’t be happier to write and edit for Her Campus. With this mindset, I know that I will love whatever I end up doing, and I know I will always have options to switch between careers and passions.

I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life yet. On the bright side, however, I’m finally ready to admit this and embrace the fact that yes, I am undecided (peep my bio changing weekly), and yes, that is a-okay with me.

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