Mulling a ‘major’ decision

If a list of New Year’s resolutions was to be generalized for the average college student, I believe it would include something along the lines of: procrastinate less, go to sleep at a more decent hour, figure out what it is I want to do with my life, and eat less instant ramen noodles — or perhaps buy more.
It isn’t a secret that most people do not follow through with their resolutions. And college students are no different. One’s reasons may vary but the overall outcome is the same. Year after year, resolutions similar to these end up swinging from one list to the next like children making their way across a set of monkey bars.
Maybe it is a bit infantile to think that I can discover my true calling in life so early on in my college career, and even more so to expect that I can do so by Dec. 31 of this year when I have decide on a major, and be happy with just doing that.
I have many friends who have known what they wanted to do since elementary school and are now taking classes that will help them pursue their dream. While making my schedule for next semester, I wanted to take classes with a specific direction, too. I want to have a plan and to know where I am headed. I spend countless nights thinking about all the parallel lives I could live, and imagining what would happen if I chose public relations instead of psychology, or journalism instead of theater, and so on.
Currently I am undeclared undergraduate, but the clock is ticking and indecisiveness is my enemy. By the beginning of next fall, I will be asked what it is I want to study. I am aware that there are plenty of college students in my exact position, and even students in high school, who are familiar with the pressure to have answers before we know ourselves well enough to ask the right questions. Yes, I know that no decision is final, and that I have the luxury to change my major several times. Nevertheless I am a bit envious of my peers who already seem to have it “all figured out.”

Because it is the start of a new year, I took the opportunity to reflect on the old one. One of the main things I learned was that life doesn’t always go as planned. Relationships of all sorts can begin or end unexpectedly. New hobbies or passions can be discovered, or an experience could be thrown into your path, may it be positive or negative, that alters your perception of the world.
Although I recognize the importance of preparing for the future, I realize that it nearly impossible to know what lies ahead until you get there. So although I will be giving my future a good amount of thought, I need not worry prematurely. Things have a way of falling into place, even you don’t spend every available second you have trying to force them to happen.

Kohn, an Atlantic Beach resident, is a freshman at SUNY New Paltz.