“What do you want to do when you graduate?” Ask anyone in their 20s, currently going to school, how many times they get this question. Spoiler alert: they get it way too much.
I have gotten this question in job interviews, from family, and random people. Therefore, I have personally come to despise this question because I never have an answer for it. When I answer back to the questioner with, “I’m not sure yet,” I get a variety of reactions. Some are understanding and encouraging, saying things like, “Oh, don’t worry, you have plenty of time to figure it out.” Others just simply look at me quizzically as if they couldn’t imagine what it must be like to not know what you want to do.
I just began my junior year so yes, I do have time to figure it out but at the same time, time goes so fast and before long I’ll be out of it. I used to think I was doing something incorrectly because I couldn’t come up with an answer for this simple question. There were times when I would even make up an answer just so I wouldn’t have to go through my usual routine. Nowadays, though, I have a very different outlook.
I don’t know what I want to do when I graduate, and I’m OK with that.
I came into college as a bright eyed, bushy tailed freshman with a pre-selected major of Pre-Medicine. Well within the first semester that all changed and I quickly fell into being a Business student. During this extreme transition in my life, it quickly hit me that no matter how much I try to plan out what I want to do, it will most likely change 100 times before I finally land somewhere. Should I go to grad school? Should I go to law school? Should I try to find a job first? If I find a job, where should it be? Do I want to live somewhere specific?
There’s something freeing about the uncertainty of what I’m going to do. I feel as if I’m heading down a path that breaks off into hundreds of directions and I’m not in a rush to decide which one I head down.
I’m a hard worker, I’m passionate and in my heart I know that no matter what I decide to do I’ll be just fine. So for the time being, stop asking me what I want to do and making me feel forced to plan for the future. Let me be spontaneous and reckless and try out 1,000 different career paths if I want to. Just let me live.
