So you don't know what's waiting for you on the other side of graduation. Let me be the first person to tell you, that is more than okay.
In high school, our counselors tell us our junior year to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives so we can find a college that has a good program and will be a good fit for us. They tell us that in four years we will graduate from that college and go right into a job that will satisfy our every want because it will be in the area we studied, which we obviously loved or we wouldn't have studied it for so long.
Here's the truth: There are people that have known what they want to do since they were kids; they will go off to college, major in that area, graduate, and then love life in the career they've dreamed about for so long. But, reality, and statistics, will tell you that those people are rare. Most people don't know what they want to do while they are in high school. Realistically, they will not know until later in life.
In 2010, a study showed that only 27 percent of college graduates had a job in or closely related to their degree.
Your area of study is important, don't get me wrong. The courses you take will prepare you for a job you will one day have. These statistics are showing that you are not limited to a job within the area you studied.
As a junior in college that has changed her major twice, I will tell everyone I know that I still do not know where I will end up or what I will be doing. But I do know what I am good at, what I enjoy doing, and that's all I need to know.
I have full faith that I will end up where I am supposed to be and that I do not have to have my life figured out at 21. If there is one thing I wish I could tell my 16-year-old self it is that you do not have to have all the answers the adults in your life want you to have. The stress-filled sleepless nights are not worth it.
We are told to grow up and figure out life before we are even adults or had any experience outside of required school years.
Maybe college isn't for you. Maybe you want to graduate high school and go right into the military or stay at a community college and become a realtor. Or maybe you want to go to cosmetology school. Do it. Do what will make you happy in the long run because you are the one that matters.
At a young age, it is pounded into our brains that we need to have life figured out before it even begins. The truth of the matter is, in order to know where we are going, we have to allow ourselves the opportunity to start a life that is all our own.
