Once you begin college, everyone begins asking you, “What are you doing after you graduate? What are you studying? What are you involved with on campus?” These are great questions to be asked, yet as a person who stayed undecided until their junior year, those questions caused me the most stress. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of wildly-undecided college decisions, I have begun to find the self I have always been. Since one of the ways of finding myself was pursuing writing for Her Campus, I decided to share how this journey has gone and steps you can take if you are also lost and frazzled during the semester(s).Â
1. Breathe
I know you’ve heard it before and now here it is once again: everything will be okay, regardless of the situation. I reminded myself of this daily, sometimes two or more times a day. Every time I reminded myself I would make sure to take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Doing this simple act would make me look at things more positively; instead of, “Oh no, I’m wasting credits because I don’t know what I want in life,” I would begin thinking, “Oh well, these classes will make me a well-rounded person once I graduate.” Shifting negative thoughts into positive ones can really shift how you feel about a situation. possibly persuading you to act on something you’ve always wanted to do.
2. Don’t Compare Yourself to Everyone Else
Everyone does college differently—that’s just a fact. Some people start out college with a specific major in mind and go on to pursue that major and end up very happy. Yet others, like myself, will change their major multiple times before finding the thing that makes them happiest. And guess what? Both of these situations are very okay and also very normal. Regardless of how quickly you progress in college (or don’t), your experience isn’t any greater or lesser than someone else’s. Instead of the time and money spent on your higher education, you should instead focus on what makes you happiest.Â
3. Take Your Time
College isn’t a race, so please stop treating it as one. I constantly felt as though I needed to be ahead of the game. My high school pushed students to complete general education classes so that one could complete college quicker, so I took the initiative and completed 22 credit hours just to “get ahead” in my studies. I wish, looking back, that I would’ve never done that, nor do I think high schools should allow that as it caused immense stress as I had to figure out what I was studying a lot quicker. I had all my basics out of the way before my first semester and had no clue what I was studying so I was in sort of a weird, “let’s take random classes,” phase for two whole years of college. Even with the excess credits I had taken, I felt as though I should be taking 15 plus hours a semester to graduate on time, yet that isn’t the case at all. Take your time—there are summer semesters for a reason.Â
I came to UCF as a sophomore from another state, and at the time I thought I truly had everything I wanted in terms of college. Yet, through one bad career decision, my mind shifted how I felt about everything, leaving my life absolutely chaotic. By using the steps mentioned above and also just believing in myself, I’ve been able to grow a lot this semester—this semester has just begun. I have joined several organizations and begun to take classes that actually interest me. By doing those two things I’m starting to love college way more than I did before, and now when asked, “What are you doing after you graduate?” though I’m still not one-hundred percent certain, I’m a whole lot more comfortable addressing what I’m doing in college and what I aspire to do.Â