Currently, I am preparing for my junior year of my undergrad. Since my first day of freshman year, I had a plan. It was not very detailed, but I figured the details would come to me at one point or another. I was going to double major in Political Science and Psychology with my end goal being that I would end up in Washington D.C. working on Federal legislature that would impact mental health care in major ways. I knew point A and I knew point Z. However, recently I have come to the conclusion there are a lot of steps in between that I seemed to glance over.
Being that this is my junior year, I realized that now is the time to prepare for the next steps, even though I am unsure of what they are. I continue to ask myself almost daily, "What if I go to grad school? What if I go to law school? What if I just go straight to DC after I graduate and accept the first job I'm offered?" Currently, my what ifs in life are looking into next options of my academic career. It seems that I am at a crossroad.
I am taking this stress, though, one day at a time. I accept that I do not know my best choice yet. I have been studying for the LSAT and my GRE prep book has been ordered. I continue to be a leader on campus and try to gain any and all experience I can get.
So how do you prepare for the what if? You do everything you can think of. Recently, I have worked on not letting myself reject any options or aim too high. Sure, I may not get into an Ivy League like Harvard Law and become the next Elle Woods. However, I shouldn't stop myself from trying. During the semester, I plan on traveling to schools and visiting their campuses. I will be meeting regualrily with my academic advisors and talking with my mentors. I believe in order to prepare for the what if, you need to be prepared for anything.