In high school, there was always an end goal: get into college. The entire four years of high school were spent volunteering, working and micro-managing time. We all knew what we had to do to get into college and how to be successful. In college, things are a little more up in the air — at least for me anyway. The end goal is a job, hopefully, but the path isn’t laid out for us anymore.
For a while, the thought of not knowing what was next freaked me out, but what scared me, even more, was not knowing what I wanted to do. When you get to college, the first thing people ask is what your major is and I always had a clear answer, but the next question continues to trip me up, “So, what do you want to do with that?” The only answer I can seem to offer up is, “I don’t know.” This uncertainty is what leaves me feeling overwhelmed and distraught.
The single thought of “I don’t know” constantly had me googling what I should do with my life, because Google should have the answers, right? Wrong. In my many hours spent googling life hacks, all I seemed to conclude is that the internet is not going to give you the answers you’re looking for. Personally, I think if you’re looking for answers on how to reach your goal or even how to find your goal, it has to come from you. Everyone has different goals and different ways of reaching them.
I’ve come to realize that not knowing what I’m doing or what I want to do is okay. I have time to figure things out and so do you. We all like to act like we know what we’re doing, we are all adults, after all. Adults should know what they want in life and how to get it. But it’s just a face we all put on, so we can act like we know what we’re doing.
It’s so easy to compare ourselves to the people around us. I’m guilty of it, and I’m sure you are too. Instagram and other social media are constant reminders of how well everyone is doing, but what they don’t show is that people have other things they struggle with. It can be hard to remember that not everyone knows exactly what they are doing in life.
When I start to feel overwhelmed thinking about the future and all the things I don’t know, I think about how the person next to me is just as confused. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that everyone else feels lost sometimes, too. I have my own goals in life and so does just about everyone else in college. My goals are constantly changing, which is a little inconvenient because we only have four years of college to tailor a perfect resume for our dream job.
The best thing I can tell myself is that it’s okay to be confused or uncertain at times because it’s completely normal. We all second guess ourselves, the best things I can do is be confident in myself and let the future come as it is and be excited about it.