I was a lost soul from the beginning of freshmen year until this past summer. I entered college thinking I wanted to be a pediatrician. My father is in the medical field and I admired how every day he was getting up to go better someone’s life. I wanted to do that. I wanted that rewarding feeling.
But was it the medical field that I was truly passionate about? Did I really love science?
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No.
I didn’t ask myself that question until I switched my major a second time. I switched my major from Bio/Pre-Med to Community Health. I knew it wasn’t in my heart to go to medical school, but I still thought I wanted to do something in healthcare. I wanted to change people’s lives but in a different way, and Community Health would allow me to spread knowledge about health while working alongside a team of physicians and other medical professionals.
Sounds like I had it all figured out, right?
No.
Along the road as a Community Health major I added nursing as well. Nursing? Where did that come from? The previous summer I had done an internship with the case-management team at NYU Lutheran Hospital in Brooklyn and one day I had the opportunity to shadow a nurse practitioner. I had so much fun that it had me thinking, “Well maybe this is what I should do with my life.” I’ve never expressed interest in nursing before, and my parents were not even surprised because by that point I had made their heads spin numerous times about discussing what I truly wanted to do with my life.
So fast-forward to the summer entering junior year of college — this past summer. I was taking microbiology at Baylor and sitting in lab when a girl sitting across from me asked what I want to do with my life. Without hesitating, I answered, “I want to write books and public speak.” She replied, “So why are you in nursing again?”
I had an epiphany that summer that I didn’t want to work in the medical field. I admired how happy my dad was doing what he loved, but medicine is his passion, not mine. I came to realize that I wanted to be just like my dad in the sense that I wanted to wake every single day with a smile on face because I was doing what I truly loved. I am now proud to say I am a Corporate Communications major with a dream of one day becoming an author, columnist, and public speaker. My goal would be to inspire young women to better their lives emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Point to take away from my little story:
You may not always know exactly what you want to do. It’s OK to not have a plan, and that was something I was very uncomfortable with for a long time. It took me a very long time to become friends with “uncertainty.” Understand that you are young and you have the majority of your life ahead of you — it is expected that you do not know what you want to do for the rest of your life. And to be honest, what you think your passion is now may change throughout the course of your life. But continue to search for your true purpose, and do not give up. You were given a unique purpose in life and it is your job to cultivate and nurture that purpose.
Don’t give the outfit you may wear tomorrow or future weekend plans more thought than what you would be doing the rest of your life. It’s your future. Dream big and don’t get discouraged by a lack of clarity. You may currently not know exactly what you want to do, but as long as you know who you want to be, you’re halfway there.
Promise.
