“What do you want to do with your life?”
…is a question I have been asked (and have asked myself) too many times to count. My entire high school career involved me determining what classes I liked or disliked or performed well in which ultimately resulted in me choosing the general path I want to follow. I’ve wanted to be an architect, interior designer, esthetician, dermatologist, psychologist and psychiatrist at different points in my life, none of which I ended up pursuing.
When applying to Queen’s in Grade 12, I decided to apply to the Arts and Science Faculty as a Sociology major. Even still, when I arrived freshman year I was not 100% sure about my decision. After taking classes in Psychology, Philosophy and Political Studies (my other interests), I eventually decided to stick with my Sociology major and add on Political Studies as a minor. However, after realizing that political studies and law were in fact not the same thing, I changed my mind about studying politics – so the minor was removed shortly after. In sophomore year, I gravitated towards elective courses that fell within the criminology & law stream. As someone who enjoys watching true crime shows and documentaries, I’ve always held an interest toward those topics; so taking classes that discussed them (such as, Theories of Deviance and Social Control, Substantive Issues in Social Deviance, and Sociology of Criminal Justice) just made sense for me.
Now, at the beginning of my junior year, I feel as though I’m back at square one – stuck between career paths with no definitive plan ahead. Law school has always been a consideration of mine since beginning my undergraduate degree, but I’ve recently been thinking if I should pursue an MBA instead (what if marketing is my true calling?). Or go to grad school for Sociology. Or a new fourth option that I haven’t thought about yet. Now that I’m halfway through my time at Queen’s, it suddenly seems like that decision needs to be made very soon (mainly because the conversations I have with my parents typically involve the question I raised at the beginning of this article).
By the end of the 2024-2025 school year, I would like to determine if studying for the LSAT is something I will be spending my time on next summer. Having lawyers in my family, I’ve been told it’s a career that requires serious preparation and commitment. This forces me to ask myself the following question: would I enjoy being a lawyer? I don’t want to dedicate a significant amount of time toward studying for a specific profession if I’m not passionate about it. Does anyone else just wish they could see what they would look like in 10 years based on which career path they follow?
So, basically….I’m having a premature quarter-life crisis. Like entering your 20s isn’t a hard enough concept to grasp. And if you’re in the same boat as me, remember that that’s 100% okay! All of us are just starting to find our way in the world and figure out who we want to be. It is very difficult to decide at such a young age what it is that you want to do for the rest of your life. And, a couple years down the line, or even a decade later, you decide that you want to pursue something entirely different from what you initially imagined, then that’s okay too. After all, we all end up where we’re meant to be. Eventually.
(P.S. Can someone please write the LSAT for me so I don’t have to do it? Thanks, much love XOXO)