When I first got to Seattle, overly ambitious to get a taste of everything I had missed at a high school with a limited scope, I was certain that I was going to major in environmental studies and save the world from impending doom, but was discouraged when a family member told me that it was a âfakeâ degree. When I switched to psychology, I was told that I couldnât apply that to the real world. In early childhood and family studies, it was, âOh, so you donât care about making money.â And then, when I recently was accepted into the Public HealthâGlobal Health major, and texted close family members to share the good news, I got a text back that read âGood luck finding a job.”
I will admit that Iâve probably changed majors more than the average person, so when I finally found a program that I wanted to stick with, that last comment was a bit of a setback, even though I was well-aware that it shouldnât have that power. These family members and the occasional friends definitely mean well, and will argue that theyâre âjust looking out for youâ in the long run. However, as these comments loom in the back of my head and swirl around in my subconscious, theyâve led me to have a few nights in my undergraduate career so far where, when browsing through courses for next quarter or perhaps loosely planning out my future life in my head at 3 am, I ask myself if I should take their words to heart. I write out plan B, then C, and then Z in my notebook, along with the questions, âShould I suffer through a major Iâm not interested in, in order to âbuyâ happiness later on in my career? Would this financial safety net make me happier down the road?â
There are a lot of things you learn how to do in college and on your own for the first timeâhow to properly do your laundry, how to wake up on time for 8:30 a.m. classes, and maybe how to cook a dinner for yourself that doesnât consist of Ritz crackers and iced coffee. And then, of course, there are the more important things that take a greater level of social and emotional competence, such as figuring out who you are, what you value in other people, and what you hope to work on for the benefit of future you. However, there is also the seemingly forgotten lesson that you need to knowâit is not your job to live for anybody else, and to shine a light on somebody elseâs desires, while engaging in the education youâve worked hard for. This isnât something thatâs going to be taught to you in a 101 class as part of any curriculum, but itâs something that you should take with you out of your college experience, hopefully sooner rather than later.
I repeat, it is not your job emotionally, as a person whoâs spent countless hours on the continuous past, present, and future hard work it takes to make it to where you are, to do something that your family prefers as a field of interest. Your motivations have more depth than just a page-long cover letter and a picture-perfect LinkedIn profile.
This admittedly can be a challenge at any school that tends to obviously and vastly value certain academic disciplines over others, which is why in order to truly gain the most out of your quick college years, regardless of major or discipline, above all, youâll need to be your own best friend. And by that, I definitely donât mean to cut anybody out of your life who may be skeptical of your choicesârather, in order to support yourself in the face of adversity, either from others or maybe from yourself on the bad days, Iâd encourage you to remember that youâre meant to be where you are, on your current path. It means supporting yourself through the thick and thin of your journey (even if it looks different than what you were envisioning just yesterday), re-evaluating your decisions, and donât forget, calling yourself out on your sh*t if itâs proving to not get you anywhere. Hopefully, youâll learn that itâs all part of the process of being independent and going with lifeâs flow instead of resisting it.Â