When I came to college, I thought I would be a creative writing major. Even though I hadn’t written anything creatively in over 2 years, I thought that I should stick with what my dream job had always been (becoming an author), and just push through how much I actually hated writing. Within a month, I had changed my major to Publishing and Editing, and I thought that my college career was set. Boy, was I wrong.
During my freshman year, I took a class called Justice, which investigated the different ways that philosophers throughout time saw the concept of “justice”. Putting aside the fact that my professor was actually insane, I enjoyed the class immensely and took the chance during my sophomore year to take a legit philosophy class. I became a philosophy major a few months later, and I haven’t looked back.
Now, this sounds like I know what I want to do with my life, right? Like maybe I have things figured out. I don’t. A philosophy major that isn’t followed up by at least a Master’s doesn’t really count for anything. Plus, the jobs a philosophy major would do are almost completely academically-centered, which doesn’t really appeal to me.
However, I recently talked to my academic advisor about the Philosophy Capstone that I have the option to do next fall. I would basically have free reign to pick a topic I’m interested in and investigate it to my heart’s content, and then I would be able to show my work during Scholar’s Day in the spring. Thinking about the capstone has me also thinking about my future. I used to have my mind made up that I would just find a job that wasn’t awful and stick with it as long as possible. But now I feel like maybe that’s just letting my dreams be dreams.
I think I’m going to do the Capstone, and along with that, I think I want to get my Master’s in Philosophy, probably something centered more on ancient philosophy, but we’ll see. Not only does this terrify me because I’m basically committing myself to more school/debt/stress, but it’s also a little exhilarating. I’m going to do what I want, and not let anyone tell me that it won’t work or won’t help my future.
Sometimes it seems practical to do something, especially when it comes to saving money or not, but the practicality of actions should not dictate your future; that will just lead to a simple, and most likely boring life. Don’t let your dreams stay dreams, my friends. We can do anything.