As I entered my 2rd year of college, I realized that I have no idea what type of career I want to pursue after I get my degree. This isn’t new to me, but I went into crisis mode when I went out to dinner with some new roommates and we all went around the table sharing what we wanted to do with our degrees and I blanked. People were sharing all kinds of passions with a step-by-step plan on how they were going to achieve this. They knew the entry level positions they wanted all the way to the highest title they were going to adopt in their field and I just felt so behind when I said, “I don’t know”. In addition to this, everyone had all kinds of experience in their passion like internships and clubs, but I, once again, had nothing to add to that conversation. My own justification for this was that I didn’t know what my passion was, therefore, I wasn’t allowed to try new things. In my head, I was only allowed to get involved if I had interest or was already knowledgeable about the topic, but I realized that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I set out a plan for myself that year. I made myself try every single new opportunity that was available to me. I went out for all kinds of different jobs, clubs, volunteer opportunities, hobbies, even tv shows looking for something; a common theme between this broad range of subjects that was addicting enough to me to share with people when asked: “What do you want to do after college?” I signed up for law classes, volunteered for public health and student government organizations, and even started writing for Her Campus. I opened myself up to feelings and experiencesthat were foreign to me, like rejection, and though those were tough to process it just made me closer to figuring out who I was and what I wanted. But to be completely honest, I just started my third year of college and I’m still not sure what I want to pursue.
Despite this, opening myself up to these opportunities has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve given myself permission to have. Though I didn’t exactly find an answer to that dreaded question, I found out new things about myself, enough as to where being asked that question doesn’t scare me anymore. I learned my potential and I also gained a lot of insight. When trying these new things I met all kinds of people and realized that no one else has it all figured out either. So I guess I did find my answer, though not the one I expected. I learned to go easier on myself because it’s normal to not know what to do with your life.
