As I am about to enter my last year of undergrad, I feel as if the past few years of my life were a blur. You’re telling me I will have my bachelor’s degree and now I’m considering going to grad school? No way would 18-year-old me would’ve believed this. I feel like I have been in panic mode and burned out these past few months but here I am, with not a clue in my head about what I want to do, all that I know is I want money and to enjoy what I do.
I graduated with the class of 2020 from high school and yes, I am going to talk about it every chance I get because it had such an impact on my life. I thought I was going on a 2-week break and March and never came back to school. This put such a halt to my life that I considered not going to college. I knew I wanted to study the environment but, in my state, there are very few programs and I had to consider the costs of going to university and what my family could afford.
I do not regret picking my environmental major, but I do feel as if I was ill prepared for college. People telling me that I need to pick a career that makes me the most money while also trying to choose what I wanted to do for the rest of my life at 18 made my head spin. Now that I am 21 deciding on grad school and future jobs my head is right back to spinning. I don’t want to settle for grad school like I did for my undergrad but once again, I am considering all the things I did when I was 18.
Having a parent that went to the military instead of college has been hard because we are both figuring things out at the same time. Not having that knowledge or those connections is something I wouldn’t wish for anyone considering college. I am going to be honest, I never dreamed of working. But I did see myself helping people in need through environmental efforts. But of course, that’s not the most profitable of careers. Some days I want to give up or go back in time knowing all that I know now, since I can’t, I am making it work.
Not being great was never an option for me. I have always wanted to be the best at what I do, and money isn’t everything, but man do I want a lot of it. I want to love what I do and make a lot of money doing it. So, I don’t regret my choice to study the environment but with the knowledge I have now, I am going to make sure that I get everything I want out of this life and help people while doing it.