In college, most students do not know what they want to do with the rest of their lives-- 80 percent of college students change their major.
“It took me four years to find what I wanted to get my degree in. Now, when people ask me what I'm studying, I answer proudly with my head held high,” wrote Alicia Raquel Vega in an Elite Daily article.
Thankfully, there are a few ways to help make the decision a bit more complicated, though a lot more educated and, in the long run, being a happier go-getter ready for their sweet, naive innocence to be destroyed by the demands of adult life-- enjoy!
1) Search clubs and organizations.
Looking up clubs and seeing what organizations draw in your curiosity is a fantastic way to accurately decide your career path or passion. If you stick with the club that you know was a success, you can look into majors that correspond with their setup but, on the flip side, with having to be involved in their events, you find it was more of a drag than your cup of tea, take a look at your options again.
2) None are exceptionally intriguing? Start one.
If you are looking down your options, in terms of clubs and organizations, but nothing seems right, think of why nothing seems right. With your previous interests and passions, what would be a unique club for you? And then you see if they are other people like you too. See if other people have your same ambition and let us be honest, a club for Pokémon GO players looking for other people to walk around with them at midnight so they do not look that weird, is probably a club other geeks need as well. Take one for the team and attempt to be social!
3) See if any college sports pique your interest.
*If you are a Pokémon GO player, please do not do this. Trust me on this one, coaches will not appreciate you taking out your phone because you want to see if a pokémon is on the field. They do not care if it is Vaporeon, you will have to find a new activity fast.
For everyone else, which does not leave many, sports are a nice package deal of finding new friends and having a cool way to get-in or stay-in shape! It will look good on a resume if you stick with it, and you can see where your interests lie. Maybe you should be a fitness or team building coach, maybe you should pick a major that minimizes socializing or interacting with humans in general. Who knows!
4) Check out the intramural teams too.
If college sports are a little too serious for your liking, see if any intramurals are a little more your style. More often than not, intramurals offer a more diverse sports experience with the added bonus of not coming before school work. You can still find some new people to talk to and see if you are a people person or not without the commitment of college teams. With all sports, college or not, talking to others can cause you to find interest in an activity they are already associated with.
5) Student Government.
Running for a student government position or thinking through the details to run can show your ambition in these types of leadership positions and test your temperament. By running, you can view how much it would take to go into politics and in general, hold a leadership position- being in the spotlight for voices to be heard and to be judged by your opponents.
6) Volunteer at and around your college and community.
Again, this can test out being a people-person but also test out a job before you actually go into it. Babies can be slobbery and stinky but perhaps after having volunteered in a nursery, you decide nursing or being a midwife is for you! Then, cooking seemed kinda cool until you went to cook at a soup kitchen and decided you would rather have someone else make the food for you, which requires some money if you want quality, so might I suggest business?
7) Apply for an on- or off-campus job.
Usually a job is a good way to test out a career like volunteering is to a job. Specifically a job you are not planning to or will not do for the rest of your life is still good if you want money in college to get some bills paid and have some food. Maybe work at a home where you aid the elderly or mentally disabled to see if that would be a good place to start your career. If you got an award letter for work study or your school extends jobs to all students, try out the library to see if your key interest is in books and reading. You could be the next Stephen King!
8) Explore the Career Center.
Take a look inside and talk to the people at your university’s career center to see if they have any cool jobs to go along with some predetermined hobbies and curiosities. You could add or drop some ideas off your list and network, a win-win.
9) Take Liberal Studies classes seriously.
Freshman year you decide to major in English Literature. This is it, and you have had this drive for English since your freshman year of high school, but you spend more time on your Math 217 class than anything even related to English, which time to switch it up a bit. Do some research on both options, and even though your head might be set up on one, your heart could suffer without the other.
10) Try Group Fitness.
Group fitness is an even less committed workout venue option, but you may have to pay a bit of money. Group fitness is a good, individual activity to try that could lead to being a yoga instructor or owning a fitness oriented business. Perhaps you are a business or entrepreneur major but do not know what to go into for the long haul. Trying out different activities like this and taking them out for a spin can work out in your favor. Or, with working out in general, it could clear the stress enough to help your brain work more efficiently.
11) Look at internships and be diverse about it.
So what if you are a nuclear engineering major? You watched Disney as a kid and if you are 5’3", it is possible to be the next Snow White and greet tons of little kids at Disneyland! Internships are an interesting way to see if you are passionate enough about your given major. If you stick with your major, it will look great on a resume but if not, it will still look good. Just be thankful you found out now and not when you wake up one morning to find you have become Squidward.
12) Take an interest in what your roommates and/or friends are doing.
No two people are the same, even twins, so your roommate(s) and friends probably have some different majors, minors, hobbies and curiosities than you do, so use that to your advantage. Ask them about those interests and see if that is suitable for yourself, they may be an expert and you have a first-class ticket to understanding this better than ever, whether you like it or not. Finding a diverse outlet to let your imagination wander is usually a plus.
13) You are at one hemisphere, research the other.
If you are dead set in science fairs and chemistry competitions but always had a fleeting fling with the poetry side of English Literature, look into it. Maybe your only focus was reading scary stories about the dark side of classical fairy tales and never really experimented with the dark and mushy side of the human body, anatomy. In order to truly and definitely know what would make you most happy in a career, you must educate yourself in the possibilities that lay before you.
14) Attend Academic Expos or Major Tours.
Getting a tour and testing the opportunities out for a day in a given major can certainly set out and define your ambitions in life. Talk with professors and gain insight into ideas you have never thought to study before until you have enough knowledge to make a decent decision for where to turn next.
15) Take an off-the-wall-elective with your free credits.
Comic Art 101 is possibly the type of thing you want to do but is way too out of the way for your Criminology degree and quite frankly, you have never heard of it. Taking unexpected turns and leading off of wild guesses is how life works sometimes and with your empty free credits asking to be spent, you might as well make the most of it and acquire a new perspective. You will be surprised at what you find.
Being ordinary is how you get stuck in dead end jobs and not getting anywhere in life. No one wants to go to a job they hate because they did not put in the work to figure out what they wanted to do beforehand. Putting yourself out there and going against the conventional norm can and probably will be scary, introverts can relate all too well, but it will aid in gaining a new view and depth of yourself. And with trying these things, you could find you were on the right track the entire time.
Once you lay everything out on the table and do not have boundaries weighing you down, it is intriguing to see everything you will find about yourself and everything you will accomplish in the future.Madeline Gavatorta, Opinions
