I firmly believe that everyone has a purpose in this world, but sometimes it’s difficult to know what that purpose is. It’s stressful when you’re growing up and seeing everyone around you finding their purpose, all the while you’re just watching, waiting, and feeling lost.

This is how I felt all through high school up until very recently. Most of my friends knew what they wanted to do with their lives and were already taking advanced classes to further their “calling” before college even began. Meanwhile, I was floundering with multiple different ideas that frankly did not suit me at all.

Did I want to be a dentist, a criminal investigator, or a nurse? I even kicked around the idea of getting a fast-track degree to be a veterinarian technician. I felt like an idiot when I realized I was horrible at almost everything math and science related. While all my friends were taking AP statistics, I was struggling to get through basic trigonometry and biology. For a long time, I felt like being good at STEM subjects was the only purpose I could have that would matter in the real world. It was disappointing to say the least. I know it might seem stupid now, but in high school it seemed like the end of the world.

I was so distracted by this that I didn’t even pay attention to the things that I had always been good at like reading and writing. I had always excelled at basically anything that involved words, but I had never thought about a career in writing. My junior year, I took a basic journalism class as an alternative to driver’s ed, and I ended up loving it! The next semester, I became the editor of the school paper. This is when I realized that I might have a future in journalism.

I decided to go to college and major in online journalism. Still a little unsure, I was pretty hard on myself during my first semester. Although I was excelling in all my classes, I still hadn’t gotten a real taste of journalism, only the same old research paper style classes that I had in high school. I stuck with it, though, and I am SO glad I did. This semester I started writing for the school paper, and now I know I’m definitely where I need to be. I love everything about it, from talking to cool new people every week, to sitting down and being able to put their stories into words. I’ve never done something that has felt so rewarding.

So, moral of the story, it’s okay to feel completely lost and scared and stupid: but, you’re not. Sometimes it takes a little longer to find what you were truly meant to do in life, but it makes it even sweeter when you do. Don’t give up on your passions just because they might not fit the typical mold. You’ll find your purpose someday and you will kill it!