Exactly 260 days from when I started writing this article, I was on a plane to Glasgow, about to commence five months of studying abroad. In those months, including a month-long European backpacking trip that followed, I learned so much about myself, being independent, travelling, how big the world actually is and how important friendships truly are. Now, back on my university’s campus, my time abroad hasn’t quite left my mind. I walk home from class and reminisce on walking home to my dorm room from the bus station after a weekend trip to Paris. The world had finally been opened up to me, in a way I hadn’t yet experienced and now I’m back where I started. As much as I missed my family, my friends and my life here, my nagging thoughts of travel make me question my future after university. As it’s my last year of my undergraduate degree, now’s the time to start thinking about grad school and the future. And I’m still not quite sure what to do.
I remember when I was in my last year of high school, planning out which universities I wanted to apply to and what I wanted to do with my life. I remember thinking, “How am I supposed to know what I want to do with my life at 17?” Now, at 21, I have the same thought, even with four more years of life and school under my belt. There are so many things I’m interested in and would love to study but I don’t yet have a plan for the future. There is one thing I know for sure: there’s so much more of the world that I’d like to see. Whether it’s going back to the U.K. and exploring even more, or going to Asia, Australia and New Zealand, there are so many more life experiences I want to have and so many more passport stamps to collect.
As this semester has gone by, this has occupied more of my mind and made me increasingly indecisive. I believe that if I’m not sold on any set plan for my future, maybe it’s the right decision to take some time off and figure out the direction I want to take with my next degree. And maybe through travelling, meeting new people and having new experiences, what I’m meant to study will illuminate. Or perhaps it’ll simply allow me to finally have an empty plate, with no lingering assignments or work to do, to truly ponder and decide what feels like the right thing to do.
Sometimes I wonder if things would be more clear-cut if I hadn’t had my time abroad; if it would be easier for me to choose a grad school in Canada and apply for next year. But I’m not so sure. I think as a young adult, these kinds of decisions are difficult for almost everyone, and the world opens itself up in different ways to everyone as we get older. As I explore my options and research graduate programs, I try to remember that many people are in the same boat as I am and that it’s okay not to have everything figured out yet. And so I’m excited for the next chapter ahead, wherever it might take me.