Today. Today is a great day, no doubt, but HOW in the world can we 20-somethings pick a major, stick with it or not stick with it, and dedicate their time and energy into this lifestyle? Is there something wrong with a person who can’t commit to a career? Am I yelling into an abyss about this?!?!

In my years in school- geez I’ve been in school for two decades… no wonder I have such disillusionment! I picked my major Anthropology because there was just something about the field that interested me and made my heart ‘pitter-patter’ (as one of my professors had put it) like no other major did. I dedicated my time toward figuring out what I wanted to do with this degree and it has led me on a silly trip of odd jobs and “experiences” that I will always remember. Okay, sure, of course I’ll rationalize that my post-college path was all meant for something, but it’s come to a point now where I’m like, “Get real!” Get real about the world and the responsibilities a grown adult is thrusted into. Hey, IT REALLY IS GREAT! So much freedom to explore and buy and sell and date and dance and sing! Okay, got a little fantastical there…

I’m not going to say I was given too many options, the world is FULL of options and a college degree is one niche of the cornucopia of choices (does anyone else have that vision of Donnie Steven from Even Stevens learning about the world cornucopia… remember those glasses cute Donnie wore?!) I think the young are just not realistic about how the world is to a 22 or 23 year old. The Bachelor’s degree is great! No doubt! It isn’t just a piece of paper that says, “Woohoo money well spent, now get a job.” It’s a marker of the determination and persistence a person committed to. The nights of struggle staying up late to hurriedly finish that 20-page paper or the miraculous way you shuffled your feet into class hungover from a night of wayyyy too much liquid courage, or the connections and friendships you learned to make from a whole new crew of people seemingly different from or conspicuously too alike to you, all of these in between aspects we had to learn to navigate was a marvelous learning experience that nothing else could teach us the way college did.

BUUuuuuuut,among all of is fabulousness and hype while in college, especially at a university, how do you know what you want to do? I surely didn’t. I had a student assistant job in the Anthropology Department and thought I saw a behind the scenes glimpse of the lifestyle of the professors- and I thought it was great! Now here in my Master’s program, I’m seeing the gritty side of academia. Maybe it has changed, maybe I have changed. But, by golly, it’s uneasy to alter your trajectory when you thought you had a plan! The world is open to do (almost) anything you want. As we get older, the options are there, but the trudge through the molasses to get there gets thicker and thicker. In a nutshell, it gets a little harder. But all in all. HOW DO YOU SETTLE ON A DEGREE AND A CAREER?

So how did you all pick your majors? Have you stuck with the major? Did you feel a compelling need to follow through with this career path? How DID you do it?!