Undeclared

As I began my junior year of college this August, I couldn’t help but think back to the day my freshman year began.

Holy cow that feels so long ago!

These past weeks I’ve met a bunch of freshmen, and in getting to know them, I’ve realized that not having a declared major is a popular thing. Even my brother told me that he wasn’t exactly sure what he wants to study and that his major says “Undeclared.”

I remember in the months, and even years, before I left for college, the number one question people asked me (besides if I was moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania…).

“What are you going to major in? Do you know what you are going to study?”

And 99.999999999% of the time, whether you had a clear answer to the first question or not, the next question was always,

“So what do you want to do with that? What do you want to do with your life?”

As a freshman, I had an idea. Did I stick with that idea? Nope. Within the first 7 months of school, I changed my major. But did I still have any idea as to what I wanted to do with my life? Heck no!

Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher. I absolutely LOVED school, despite the fact that I had to leave my mom. While other kids played with Barbies and Legos, I wanted to play “school” and pretend to be a teacher while my brother suffered under my instruction. I even created “worksheets” for him to do. Poor kid..

When I applied to colleges, I still really didn’t have any idea as to what I wanted to do with my life. That’s a big decision for a high schooler to make. I slowly made my way towards photography and communication. Pursuing my passion made sense to me, and with a communication degree I could virtually do almost anything. (Okay well not anything, but there were a lot of job options).

By the time my sophomore year rolled around, I thought I had it all figured out. I was on track to complete a degree in Graphic Communication with an emphasis in Web/Interactive Media. I was going to be a graphic artist and create websites and interactive media. I knew almost exactly what I wanted to do with my life.

And here I am, my junior year of college, with absolutely no idea of what I want to do/how I am going to use my degree.

I know what you’re thinking, Abbey, how do you not have any idea of what you’re doing with your life? Well, as a college student, that’s a pretty understandable concept. We don’t know what we’re doing with our lives, we have so much time ahead of us, and all these decisions we’re making now will affect us for the rest of our lives.

Monday and Wednesday afternoons I spend 50 minutes in my Graphics Career Development class, and I’m scared out of my mind. We talk about resumes, interviews, portfolios, the workforce, future employers, and everything that I will be encountering in the next 18 months. And honestly, I’m terrified.

I will openly admit to you that I don’t know what I want to do with my degree, or where I want to work. Yes, I’d like to work in the graphics industry, but I also want to work with nonprofit organizations. I want to work with churches. I want to work with people. I want to use my Marketing and Business Administration minors. But most importantly I want to make a difference.

I have all these ideas, but how they fit together, I’m not sure. Is there a job that is exactly like all of these? Maybe. Could I be searching for something that doesn’t exist? Possibly.

All I know is that the transition from “undeclared” to “declared” is not permanent or final. Undeclared is not a bad thing, and perhaps declared isn’t always a good thing. Maybe going from knowing what we want to do to having no idea what we want to do helps us grow. Perhaps it helps us open our eyes to all the possibilities. So I’m embracing this whole “I don’t know how I’m going to use my degree” state. I’m looking at all the opportunities in front of me. Maybe I’ll find one job and absolutely love it. Or maybe I have 5, 7 or 11 different jobs and love different things about each one and embrace the different skills and opportunities I’ll have.

Who knows, maybe after college I’ll work at Taco Bell for the rest of my life. (just kidding)  ((or am I?))  (No really, I’m kidding)