Every 12 seconds, a college student in America is being asked what their major is. Ok, so that was a lie but for anyone in college, it definitely feels that way. That ghastly question seems to work its way into every conversation and interaction that we have, it’s a conversation starter, whether you’re at a party, in class, at a game, a family event, or pretty much anywhere. But for anyone who knows the struggle of being hopelessly undecided, it is a conversation death-wish.
My answer to that question is usually followed by the look. All my undecided homies know the look; a wide-eyed, forced half-smile that screams “oh you’re one of those people” and takes a fat crap all over your self-esteem. Yeah, that look. There’s also usually some follow-up question along the lines of “What are you leaning toward?”, to which you have to mumble out some kind of monologue that communicates that you are not in fact a lazy and unmotivated piece of garbage but that you simply have not found your true passion in any of the intro classes you are taking.
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This is not to exclude all of the people who, upon hearing that you don’t have a major, proceed to give you a long-winded speech about some majors that they “think you’d be good at”. Or those who give you some kind of pitch, missionary style, trying to get you to ‘convert’ to their major. And while yes you’re thrilled to hear that Medieval-Renaissance Studies is going so well for them, you really just don’t think it’s going to be your thing.
We all know the struggle of the long advising meetings, where we sit with a complete stranger for forty minutes at a time to discuss our future endeavors while they root through course catalogs and try to suppress their anger while we nod apathetically at each new idea that is thrown at our sorry, indecisive butts.
We know the struggle of having so much ambition built inside of us but no idea what we should be channelling it into, or the work-ethic that we feel should be contributing to our greater plan, if we could only figure out that plan for ourselves.
So here’s a completely original and heartfelt piece of advice for all of my darling undecided children; don’t stop believin’. We’ll all eventually find our callings and we’ll all eventually go into a major that we love and are passionate about. We’ll all eventually figure it out. But until then, enjoy knowing the struggles of the undecided, and make peace with the weekly existential crisis’s that you endure now. Someday, when we all have our lives figured out, we’ll glance down at some poor, scared and undecided freshman, and give them the look.
