Every single college student has at least once been asked this seemingly easy-to-answer question: “What are you going to do with that major?” For some of us, you have an immediate answer and can probably give an entire lecture about what that career entails and why you want it so bad. But when it comes to the rest of us, this question can make any normal conversation turn awkward. Thoughts start swirling around in your head: “How do I say I haven’t decided without sounding lazy or behind?” “Do I lie and name something?” “Why am I the only one who doesn’t know what career to chase?” Let me be the one to tell you that you are far from being behind or alone.
Sometimes it can feel like a constant pressure to find exactly what you want to do. But why have we chosen now of all times to forget the saying “good things come to those who wait”? If you try to force yourself to choose something before you’re ready, you could end up going down a path that really doesn’t make you all that happy. My advice to you is to slow down and take your time. Start thinking of general ideas you have of a career that you would like to have, and stop trying to narrow it down to one specific thing. Do you want to work with people on a daily basis? Do you want a 9 to 5 job? How much flexibility are you looking for? Asking yourself these types of questions will help you eliminate some careers and make the outside world of work a little less intimidating.
Also, keep in mind that you don’t always need to have every aspect of your future planned out and written in stone. Some of us do, but that way of thinking isn’t for everyone. A lot of us also have majors that are much less specific than others, so obviously this makes settling down with one career idea that much more difficult. So many college students are trying to narrow down one specific career, one specific city, and even exactly when they’re going to start a family when they don’t even know what they’re having for dinner, all because they see others with every detail of their lives planned and think they must be the only ones with their lives not together. Just because you don’t have a definitive plan does not mean that you’re not headed in the right direction.
One day you’re going to find a career that you can see yourself doing for a long time. Until this day comes, just take baby steps. You’re working on that degree, that’s the most important part. Next time you get asked that dreaded question “So what are you going to do with that major”, don’t get in your head and think of all the ways people may judge your answer. I highly doubt the people asking you this question are living the exact lives they had in mind when they were in college. Keep doing you, keep working for that degree, keep living in the present, and keep your mind open to the different possibilities the working world has to offer. One day you’ll thank yourself for taking your time to find what truly makes you happy.