All throughout high school, I have heard countless people utter the words “these four years will be over before you know it.” I never believed this though. In the midst of worrying about getting my essay done, or doing corrections for my math class, I did not stop and realize how quickly everything was happening. Weeks passed, then months, then years, and suddenly I became a senior.
Going into senior year, I was still naive. I was excited that it was my final year, and ready to move on to the next step.
What finally got me to realize the changing pace of my high school career, was the beginning of the college application process. Everyone I know has been filling out financial aid forms, writing essays and supplements, and spending countless hours studying to get their standardized test scores up.
When I began to fill out my applications, I quickly realized that I did not even know where to start. Some of my peers had their futures planned out, their major and first choice school, already having been decided on since they were younger. This was not the case for me though.
Since I was five, adults have burdened me with the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up. In my kindergarten scrapbook, my answer to that question was a dentist. As time passed, my answers changed. They ranged from a kindergarten teacher, to an author, and then to a social worker.
Now though, there is not one career, or even major, that I can let myself commit to. While so many of my peers are confident about the choices they are making, when people ask me what I am going to major in, all I can do is shrug and tell them that I don’t know. With so many people around me having a set plan for their futures, it would be easy for me to become frantic, and pressure myself into deciding on a major. However, instead of letting myself get trapped under these pressures, I have decided to embrace being unsure.
I am constantly changing, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. While it might be scary going into a college without knowing which path I will take, I am okay with that. I am okay with taking the required classes, until I find one that I love and that will lead me to where I am supposed to be. If I take a step back, and look at the bigger picture, I am still only a teenager. I still have so much of my life to live, and me not being sure about what I want to do for the rest of it should not be something that is frowned upon.
Instead of allowing myself to be consumed in the stress that comes with senior year, I am going to focus on enjoying my last year in high school. Senior year is something that I have been looking forward to all of my life, and I am not going to let outside worries ruin it.
