In modern society, our worth often feels dependent on our productivity. Capitalism dictates that our labor is our most meaningful contribution to society and that without making a contribution, we are worthless to the world. Worse yet, celebrity culture whispers that we are the product; we must be loved by everyone, our personalities fashioned into a brand we sell to every potential colleague or employer we meet. Beneath the weight of the world’s expectations, we as college students hover in the fateful intersection between education and career. While some of us know the career we want to pursue, many of us are still uncertain. Without knowing what we want in life, we lack a clear path to success and productivity, and we can end up feeling like a failure before we’ve even begun.
Dedicated people who know exactly what they want to do with their lives will always exist. They outline their five-year plans, complete with every class, every internship, and every promotion they’ll receive on a neat little timeline. In other cases, their career route follows the comfortably worn grooves of the thousands who have come before them. For instance, the Adventist education system is established in the medical world. Students graduate from Adventist universities like Andrews every year and enroll at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. From medical school to residency, the Adventist education system has their back. But for some of us, the paths are not quite as linear or as clear.
Abigail Lee (sophomore, sociology) says, “Personally, I know what I want to do for my career and how to get there because I don’t really have a choice. Unlike some routes like pre-med, I don’t have everything laid out explaining what to do and how to do it. I try to be a self-starter and talk to people in the industries I want to enter because I know that typical resources, like the university, often don’t have the answers that I need.”
For those of us not on the well-worn trail of medicine, lack of resources can be a huge hurdle to success. We have to adjust the traditional career goal posts before we can apply them to our journeys. Still, what happens when we don’t even know which obstacles we’re meant to overcome? What happens when we lack a sense of direction in our professional lives? We’ve all heard the age-old debate: “following your heart” versus practicality. Perhaps you love drawing cartoons, but people have told you time and time again that animation is not a viable career. Undoubtedly, a career’s practicality is a real factor in our decisions—but whether or not a career in the arts or humanities can produce a stable income is second to the question of who we are and how this dictates what we want.
University is the time to discover ourselves as individuals. As we all know, most of us have and will change throughout our lives. Though you may have wanted to be an astronaut at five, you might be interested in being a professor now. Even more broadly, our values and outlook on life evolve. At college, many of us begin to question seemingly obvious truths of life that our family and community have raised us in. We form our own identities, and with these independent identities come our unique passions and beliefs.
Thus, what we want in life is not only contingent on our hobbies, our talents, or our future paycheck; we must consider ourselves as people. Living in a world which places your productivity above your personhood can render self-discovery difficult, but we have to step back from the constant grind of choosing a career to find who we are as people. It is okay to not know what we want to do. We can pause and allow ourselves the space to reflect.
Knowing who we are builds our confidence. It opens our eyes to the areas where we need improvement. It enables us to become better communicators among a myriad of other benefits. Furthermore, confidence, self-awareness, and open communication are all qualities that will take us far in any career. At the end of the day, when we know who we are, the rest of our lives will fall right into place.
Whether we’re certain about our career or completely unsure about the future, we can take a few general steps. Secure a network by connecting with professors, attend lectures by guest speakers, and reach out to professionals within your social circles. Interview and shadow people with jobs you're interested in. Seek out internships in your field of interest. If you find a line of work meaningful and enjoyable, that’s more than enough reason to follow that path further.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.