No Singular Way

Life is not a published book. Plans are not imprinted on each page of every day of every year until its eventual end. Even if they were, the book might get damaged, ripped or its lettering might fade with time. Just as a book ages and changes with time, so does life. Decisions in the past do affect one's future. However, year by year, that decision affects a person's present less and less, replaced by newer life events.

In the 21st century, there is more and more pressure on young adults from parents and the public to have everything in order and for them to know what they want to be in life. By the time a young adult accepts a college acceptance letter, they are expected to know what will they will major in, when will they graduate, and what they will do after graduation.

Students are dissuaded from changing their major and their plans after college. They are discouraged from finding their true selves because it is deemed "too late" to be doing that during college as they should've done that in high school.

This is problematic because young adults feel the pressure to choose what they will be right after high school graduation. They study what their first choice was when they were 17 years old or 18 years old, rather than find themselves during college. It implies that people's interests are stagnant after high school.

Another fault in this process is that college is the place where one should find oneself. If writing is of no interest to the person and they only realize that after they take several English classes, they should feel free to change their major without feeling like a disappointment to their family and friends.

Colleges now do have an "undecided" major where a person can take several classes on different majors while deciding what they want to do with their life. This is not the issue that is being discussed in this article—what is being addressed is the acceptance of changing majors, not being unsure of what one wants to do in life.

When one takes and passes a class in a particular major/minor, it is one step closer to completing that specific path. However, anytime a person changes their major, it is as if they were starting from the beginning again. That is where most people have a problem. They assume that anytime that a person changes a major/minor, they are starting from the beginning. This assumption is due to the fact that each major in college is perceived as one singular path and that there is only one way to complete that major/minor. These assumptions, in turn, imply that each of these paths never crosses and once a person starts on a path, it is one straight line from beginning to end.

Not one major in college has a singular path from begging to end. Each person completes their major in their way. Whether they begin their major in freshman year or transfer into in during the middle of sophomore year, the way that they complete their major is up to them.

As a society, we must accept change, whether that may be in interests or majors. We must encourage change and in turn, growth in young people, for they are the future, the only chance we have.