"Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you'll make a difference" -Arie Pencovici
I am a freshman in college, surrounded by people who are going to school in order to secure themselves a future career. Well I'm sorry to say this (mainly to my mom and dad), but I have absolutely no idea what I want my future career to be. I mean, I know I want to do something in business and economics because those are subjects that truly interest me, but I can hardly figure out what I want my major (or majors) to be.
Here was my idea of my future during my first semester at college:
1)
2)
3)
Now do you understand what I'm saying? I have absolutely no idea what I want my future to be or where I want to be. Earlier this year I was having a crisis, small and insignificant, but a crisis nonetheless. I'm in the business school and I was having a rough time with the math class I was in and because of those struggles I thought that I wasn't cut out for business. So I thought "Maybe I should go into Exercise Science". Well as soon as I told my mom that she quickly reminded me how much I disliked science classes. I decided to give my business classes another chance second semester. I am currently taking a macroeconomics class and I can happily say I know one very possibly direction I would like my education to go towards. It is a very interesting class for me and I enjoy it. So as I started looking up the requirements for majoring in economics, I came across the requirements for minoring in marketing (its only 12 credits- totally doable).
Here is my current idea of my future:
1) Economics major (possibly with finance since I'm interested in stocks and bonds) with a possibly minor in marketing.
2)
3)
I have time to figure this stuff out but it's nice knowing that I have a little more direction now than I did five months ago. College really is a place where you find who you are, and I couldn't be more thankful for that.
Every good thing takes time, so figuring out what I'm going to be doing with the rest of my life will take about 3 more years (5 if I want to go to grad school). But I'm okay with that, because I'm supposed to take these classes in order to know what's right for me. So don't give up too easily, because you never know what's around the corner. It could be something truly life changing.
Alex, this is very interesting and insightful. I will never forget about the professor I had in my freshman year for an honors English class. He must have been close to 70 years old, and the year was . . . ahem . . . well, it was 1976, totally pre-computer days as far as being visible in daily life. One thing he did was invite each student to come and chat with him outside of class about "what we wanted to do with our lives." When I told him my tentative plans (teach Spanish or be a journalist), he urged me not to specialize too soon but rather to get a solid education that would apply to many possible future endeavors. He said something to the effect that at my age, and in the era we lived in, I couldn't completely predict what careers would be like in my "future," but that a solid education would never grow old! I took his advice seriously and in fact graduated at first with "just" a liberal arts degree. Did take some coursework related to my possible career interests, too. Anyway: here's the punch line. I ended up in one career for 25+ years that I had never yet heard of in 1976 (although it did exist, but not as prevalent as it came to be during the '80s and '90s), and I am currently 9 years into a second career that did not EXIST in those days (computer-related). So I think it's cool that you are honing in on a MAJOR but cannot envision your future career. With a college degree, with a major, and great experiences and references behind you, you will be poised to look for lots of possible things to do to make a living. Economics certainly applies to many possible careers and jobs! And maybe, just maybe, your future career does not even exist yet -- or maybe it does but you have never heard of it! So getting #1 figured out is super cool but not having #2 or #3 figured out is not a problem. At least, so I think from my vantage point! Your mom might say something different but also similar, from a different perspective. You are lucky to have her, who knows you so well, to bounce ideas off of and get meaningful advice that is custom-made for you!
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