While largely preoccupied with unpacking and securing other essentials for the coming school year, I thought it necessary to extend myself to the incoming freshmen, and perhaps provide some insight, drawing from my own experience during those early moments of bliss.
It is likely that many incoming students were posed the following questions by relatives, friends or a schmuck on the street: “What are you studying?”
Or a deciphered variation: “What are you planning on doing for a living?”
The most common, and undoubtedly brief, answer was probably, “I’m studying accounting and hoping to be an accountant” or “I’m studying chemistry and hoping to be a doctor.”
When your Aunt Shelly and Uncle Bernard ask these questions, do you give them that simple, aforementioned answer? If so, then it’s quite possible that you’ve failed to grasp the central purpose of undergraduate education.
The undergraduate experience should be a time to further tweak, craft and capture a sense of identity, not to be molded into a workplace drone. You must alter and shape your sense of personhood. Accordingly, you should not limit yourself because of any past experiences, but rather, use them to make right-minded decisions.
Admittedly, your profession will be a major decision. However, rather than pursue a career because you want to be an accountant or a doctor, you might consider your own values,and how to find a career which embodies such.
The heavy industrial demands for both hardworking professionals and economic growth treats young individuals as both levers and pawns to a greater system. These demands are largely to blame for the creation of a generation of young people obsessed with the idea of a stoic work life, but they should not deter you from pursuing your desired path even if your major isn’t marketable.
Be open-minded. Experiment. Be passionate about even the most tedious of things and enjoy the process and the ride. Do not be a spectator, because before you know it, you will be a senior looking around asking, “How did I get here?”