It’s OK not to have it all figured out yet

It’s OK not to have it all figured out yet By Anna Baker

There’s an expectation that once you graduate college you have to get a job and know what you’re going to do with your degree. College is seen as the last frontier before the “real world” of corporate offices, resumes and commutes. Many seniors may feel this pressure that they have to know what is next, but it’s okay to be undecided about the future right now. For much of our lives we are told we need to always have a plan for the future. We have to go to school, learn, and then immediately find a job in that field and stay in it for as long as we can. We look to careers as linear timelines, only going up in promotions in time, in one place. While this may be appealing to someone who already knows what they want to do in life, it can seem daunting for those who don’t. The idea that someone has to commit to what they studied and stay in that field their whole lives means rigidity and a lack of choice later on for some.

For those who don’t have a concrete career plan, the pressure to have one can be tough. Marketing senior Cassidy Huynh says, “I think we put far too much pressure on college students to have their life planned by the age of 22.” She also makes a point saying, “Everyone works at different paces, and holding ourselves to this expectation of having everything figured out is unrealistic.” Everyone is different, so you can’t compare yourself to your friends who have it figured out. Nobody is meant to have the same exact path in life.

Even if you get into one career, that doesn’t mean you have to keep it your whole life. My dad is someone who has worked in the advertising industry his whole life, and the people he’s worked with don’t all just have advertising degrees. Many have degrees in things like engineering, music education and medieval studies to name a few. They changed their trajectory at some point but were able to have good careers doing something they liked.

No one has to stay married to their career path, even if it’s forty years down the line. If the career you later want to explore needs some coursework, you can always take some classes at a community college or go to graduate school for a different field.

It’s also important to note that we are currently emerging from a pandemic, one that caused a large number of people to get laid off. The job market is different now and it’s extremely competitive. Quarantine may have led some people to want to change their career as well. I know it did that for me.

This is all to say to cut yourself some slack if you don’t have a plan yet. You just graduated. Celebrate and be proud of yourself. The future is full of possibilities, and you don’t have to commit to just one.