If all of us have learned one thing till now, it is that most things do not usually go as planned.

You set out with a vision for the future, and you do everything in your power to stick to that vision. But there is always that one small thing that pops up and steers us entirely off course. That is when we need to rise up and evaluate our choices and do what is best for us. We need to stop thinking of the “what if” and the “but it’s too late,” because age and the amount of time spent on this Earth does not account for anything unless you make it worthwhile. Not for anyone else, but for yourself.

We all have aspirations when we are growing up. We have dreams of what we want to be, and we are very serious about them too. But during the course of growing up, our life experiences change, and so do our interests. Our dreams and future goals get amended accordingly. No one sees anything wrong with that at that time, because we are young, and we have “plenty of time” to make something of ourselves in our fields.

If no one bats an eye at the age of 15, who gives them the right to bat an eye at 40? Sure, there aren’t as many years ahead as there would have been when you were 15, or even 25, but the principle remains the same. If there is something you would rather be doing than what you are doing right now, do it. Take the leap of faith. No one else knows you better than yourself.

There will always be people giving you their two cents, but if you are sure about something, then their opinions should not matter.

I was a computer science major until the spring semester of 2018. Halfway through it, I started realizing that maybe it was not for me, that maybe I was meant for something else. I had had these doubts before, but I always shrugged them off. This time they were stronger, more prominent. My communications class spoke more to me than my CSE class, which shifted my gaze towards that field. I realized that I fitted much better in a field like journalism or communications.

When I spoke to my friends about this, they all said that it was a big switch from CIS to journalism. That I should really “think about it.” Every time I defended my decision by telling them the reasons for my change, the feeling of conviction grew stronger. It helped the smoke clear in front of my thoughts, and my vision grew clearer.

Sure, I had doubts myself too. I thought about the “it’s too late” aspect as I had already spent two years studying something else. I thought about just sticking with it for the next two years, but that would not have done well to anyone. Why do something that does not make one happy?

I finally took my leap of faith, and I feel happier and lighter already. Sure, journalism comes with its own set of challenges, but these are challenges I will be much happier facing as I am doing something out of my own interest. And that should be how everyone thinks. With everything you do, you will have some adversities on the way; you just have to find something that makes them seem worth it. Don’t be afraid of change; be afraid of getting stagnant.

If you have read up on anything that talks about time-travel, you will know that there is one major rule to it, called the Butterfly Effect (not the song by Stormi's "father"). It talks about how one small action now (or in the past) can have major consequences in the future. If changing one tiny thing in the past can alter the future so drastically, then why not apply the same thought to your own life?

Changing just one aspect of it, big or small, can alter your future in ways you cannot fathom. Make it a crucial moment in your life, one which your future self can look back on and say that it was the point which changed everything. Be your own butterfly.

I started out by saying that we need to stop thinking of the “what if,” and I would like to end by saying that there is one “what if” we do need to think of, and that is:

What if it all works out?