What Do I Want to do When I Grow Up?

Things do not turn out like you expect them to.

 

I’m sure you know someone who knows exactly what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Maybe, you even know someone who knew way back in elementary school. This is the case with my sister. She wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. And now she is a teacher. I am completely jealous of her because of this. She had a plan from the beginning and her plan worked out perfectly. My story is much different.
 

 

In high school, I really didn’t know what I wanted to major in at college. My parents, both electrical engineers, often told me that since I enjoyed math and science I should try doing engineering. I really didn’t have any other option. When I got accepted to N.C. State’s engineering school I was overjoyed. I felt like I was embarking on this really amazing journey. I really thought I would get an engineering degree in 4 years, with internships every summer at places like General Electric or IBM. It’s interesting now to see how differently things turned out.
 

 

I was an engineering student for about two years until I realized it really was not for me. I was so disappointed in myself. I felt like I wasn’t capable or smart enough. I felt like all my hard work was not paying off, which really hurt my self-confidence. After I dropped all my engineering classes I went through all the majors at NCSU and picked something else.

I ended up choosing Business Management. In my mind, business was a safe major. I felt I could do practically anything with a business degree. Well, after a year of economics classes and accounting classes I had enough. Business was boring.

 I started to really think about things I enjoy and things I don’t. I took career quizzes online, did tons of research on finding my dream job, and talked to the women at the career center. 

After all of this I decided I wanted to try graphic design. Of course, I walk into another problem. To get into the extremely competitive graphic design college you have to apply in the fall with a portfolio and a decent GPA. My GPA was unfortunately not high enough, and I didn’t have time to take classes just to get my GPA up.

 

After this I decided on the next best thing, a major in Visual Arts Applications. This major is part visual arts & design and part humanities. After one semester of Art History classes and no real graphic design classes I decided to switch again. 

My next idea was practically the same that I had before with the business major. I decided on Communications, because I felt a person could do a lot with a Communication degree and honestly by this point all I really wanted was to graduate. 

After this things got harder. I was diagnosed with a chronic illness. I was having such a hard time that I had to take a semester off from school. When I felt well enough to go back to college I could only handle being a part time student. I had to completely change my life around. After my diagnosis I got really interested in what was really happening in my body and why. I ended up changing my major to Psychology with a minor in Biology. After completing a semester of biology classes and psychology classes I felt like I had finally found the perfect major. It only took me 4 other majors to get there.

Now, I am finally enjoying what I’m studying. I am taking my time to learn and stay healthy. Did I ever think college was going to turn out like this? Not even close. Life does not need to be a simple plan to be perfect. I’m glad I didn’t stay with Engineering, or Business. I choose to take risks. I changed my mind until I found something that was really worth it to me. Will I graduate in the future? I hope so.

But, I’m not putting a date on it. I’m enjoying every day without a plan.