It’s kind of crazy that society expects us to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives straight out of high school. Colleges say you don’t need to know right away and can enter as undecided, but it still feels like it matters to them and everyone else. At 17-years-old, I was going through a midlife crisis about this, but I wasn’t of midlife crisis age. All of my life, I knew I wanted to go into law or government. I was obsessed with politics and social activism, and I watched 24/7 news channels religiously. So why did I enter college as a nursing major? Lots of doubts and insecurities.
It was evident how hard I was going to have to work for this degree during my freshman year of college. I survived with a pretty good GPA, but it took lots of work, tears and indecisiveness. (Side note: In one way, I am grateful for the lessons these nursing prerequisites forced me to learn. As someone who was always generally good at school, you can imagine how big of a blow it was to me to find it difficult or when I got a bad grade. I was one who did not have to deal with failure often, and in the few instances that I did, I had no clue how to deal with it. Nursing forced me to deal with it. It forced me to bounce back and come back 100 times harder.) Although I survived, a part of me was defeated. A part of my motivation was gone, and upon the end of the first semester of sophomore year, all of it was gone. I was tired and so unhappy.
To all of those in that major for the wrong reasons, whether due to pressure from outsiders, financial gain or something else, get out of it. Do what you want to do. It is not too late. Listen to your gut and follow your instincts. You know what is best for you! Have the courage to pursue the things you are actually passionate about and I promise you will be so much happier and motivated.
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