Even though I’m currently in my second year of university, there are a few things that I only recently realized; one of them is that I’m now old enough to be in control of my own life and make my own decisions. Now, I’ve obviously made my own decisions in the past, but every time I need to make a choice on something important I would run it past my parents before making the final decision – such as what university to go to, or what program to take. However, I’ve come to the point in my life where I don’t want to rely on my parents to help me make all of my decisions.
The main thing that made me realize this is, weirdly enough, one of my classes this year. I took it as an extracurricular class this semester, and well – let’s just say it was not what I expected at all. I hated the lectures, the assignments were boring, and it just wasn’t something I was interested in at all – and this was supposed to be my fun course! So recently, I decided I wanted to drop the class and planned to ask my parents if I could. I mentioned this to one of my friends and she asked why I needed permission from my parents – and this got me thinking.
Asking my parents for permission is something I’ve been doing my whole life, because I’m used to being a child, and therefore, being treated like one. But that’s the thing – I’m not a child anymore! It’s such a weird feeling: being a legal adult and having to do things like filling out tax forms (gross) and paying my own bills. However, even though I’m technically a legal adult, I still don’t really feel like one because I’m just not quite used it. So I’ve officially made a goal to try and become more independent this year! First step: dropping that course.
Now, don’t get me wrong, going to your parents for advice or asking them for help isn’t a bad thing at all. After all, they have more life experience than you and are literally there to help guide you through life – but my problem is that I’m still partially in the mindset where I still can’t make decisions for myself, that I need to run these decisions past my parents first to make sure it’s the “right one.” But the bottom line was that I was in a class that made me miserable and wasn’t even mandatory to my program – why shouldn’t I drop the course?
Being in control of your own life can actually be a bit overwhelming at first (time is just going by so fast, and wasn’t it 2010 like 3 years ago?). However, I also feel that it is very crucial to learn to be independent or it will be much harder to adjust later on in life. Even if you make the wrong decisions once in a while, making mistakes and learning from them is a part of life, and it’s better to get used to it sooner rather than later!