<p>Has this happened to anyone else?
I'm not a pot smoking, take 2 classes a semester student who has no ambition. In high school (i'm a senior) I was ranked very high, had a high GPA, applied to 11 colleges, including some Ivies, but all of a sudden I just don't think I want that anymore. I really don't think it is a matter of burning out, I just thinnk I have lost all the excitiment about the future. Part of it is that I don't know what I want to major in or what career I want. Defering enrollment and taking a gap year (something I used to equate with utter failures/ slackers) is starting to sound better and better, but I don't even know what I would do for a year.
So is there anyone else out there that feels like this, or am I sounding really wacky/ depressed?</p>
<p>I can't relate to your feelings but I'm sure you're not "wacky" yet. Many kids take a year off or so before going to college.</p>
<p>wait for your offers, accept one and then defer for a year. This should be no problem.</p>
<p>Why are you worried? You'll have time to figure it out in school. College is the best time ever, be excited! I didn't even know what I wanted to do after I graduated from college! I was an anthro major and now I am working in media after I got my MBA from Columbia.</p>
<p>I agree. You may just be anxious about starting college, but don't let it deter you from something you've been working for for such a long time.</p>
<p>Im the complete opposite, lol. I cant wait for the college experience.</p>
<p>Just do what you feel is right, dont let anyone sway your decisions, and remember, theres people by your side always</p>
<p>hahaha
you guys (gals) are all great.</p>
<p>Thx</p>
<p>If not having a major is the main problem, then relax. Sampling college classes in several fields is an ideal way to get a sense of your interests. I wouldn't assume incoming freshmen would know their majors.</p>
<p>If you feel this is more a matter of being burnt out, then two thoughts: first, you can relax in the summer before you begin college; or second, you can relax during college if you want to pick a light schedule for your first year. Many students find college less stressful than high school. When you're picking the classes you want, and majoring in a field you like, work and fun can be the same...</p>
<p>Finally, if you do want to take a year off, there are endless possibilities including internships, Americorps/charitable volunteering, community college, travel or au paire positions, and for the truly burnt-out - plain old paid, low-level jobs. Most CCers will cast low-level jobs as the kiss of death, but in fact it can be the ideal time to clear your head, adjust to living on your own without simultaneously adjusting to new academic responsibilities, focus your energy on your social/emotional/spiritual/artistic/etc. life without worrying about neglecting schoolwork, decide whether you can live on low wages for the rest of your life (a good thing to know for those considering low-paying fields), or simply gain greater a broader perspective in the world outside of school. I took a few years off and came back reinvigorated and with a better sense of what I wanted to accomplish.</p>
<p>haha, you're like a bride or groom who gets cold feet right before the wedding. High school to College can be an emotionally traumatic experience for some people, but the drama and trauma will pass. </p>
<p>Just stick with the game plan and ride out this temporary storm.</p>
<p>Some might suggest taking some time off to exhale and find yourself. I say, go to College and get a feel for it...at least for an year. If at this time next year you are in an emotional rut, then take some time off. You will have some college experience under your belt and may actually discover some college abroad or alternative learning experiences while at college.</p>
<p>HOLY ***** HANSEL! YOU JUST DESCRIBED HOW I WAS FEELING!!!!</p>
<p>i was thinking of taking a gap year and travel around the world, self-studying.</p>
<p>You sound like a pretty typical senior, having a typical reaction to going through the meat grinder of preparing college applications. Give yourself a month more to decompress, get your admission in hand, maybe do an accepted students visit - then see if you want to defer. Probably, you will feel much better then.</p>
<p>Hi,I'm a freshman at college right now and I've been having those same feelings. However, I didn't have them before my first year, I couldn't wait for college, but now, I feel confused, unmotivated, and diectionless. I feel like time is flying by and I have to pick a major and decided where to study abroad, etc. and I real have no idea what I want to do with my life. I feel like I just need time away from the craziness of college to regroup and just think. I've also been considering transferring, but time is moving too fast for me to make a decision and I feel like my whole life is just flying by and that when I finally know what I want to do, it will be too late. And I know people say you don't have to know what you want to do in college, but I'm not sure if this is the I want to spend four years at.
So, any ideas for a gap year? My family doesn't have much money, so something that I could make money with or break even with would be nice. I've been thinking low-paying job or something like Americorps. What about au pair positions? What are those like? Anything else?</p>
<p>Oh, and to the OP, sorry for hijacking your thread. I think the two of us need to really look inside ourselves and think about what we want regardless of what anyone else says. I, too, did well in high school and am now at a good college. </p>
<p>Feeling confused.</p>
<p>Thanks,
Ashley</p>
<p>Too many people think of college as a job mill nowadays. Maybe if you think of it as an opportunity to explore yourself and the world, to learn and think, you will find yourself interested again. Whatever you study will give you critical thinking skills which will help with any job field. Go to college, learn to think and broaden your understanding of the world. When you do finally realize what you want to do, there's always grad school....which you will need to do in many majors anyway.</p>
<p>I agree that college should be that awesome, window-opening experience; however, one of the problems with looking at college as a time to "explore" is the high cost. Very few can afford to go, study, explore, change majors several times and graduate in...oh...five or six years. In fact, many are trying to graduate in three years to save money. Expense and debt really add to the pressure to rush headlong to a specific goal. It's a shame.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I just thinnk I have lost all the excitiment about the future. Part of it is that I don't know what I want to major in or what career I want.
[/quote]
As you can see from the replies so far, your sentiments are hardly unusual. My take is that a big part of this lies in unrealistically demanding expectations. Let me explain. By choosing a major, you are closing the door to all the other majors. Choosing a career means going one direction, and perhaps some other direction would have been better. And so on, for all the factors that are giving you stress. The unrealistically high expectation is that we should make the one best choice, choose the path that delivers the most happiness.</p>
<p>Now wait a second, you're probably thinking. Is someone actually suggesting I shouldn't try to make the BEST choice? The answer is yes, and it's far from a novel observation. Long ago Voltaire wrote "the best is the enemy of the good". Part of the problem is the way our culture teaches us to view the world. The idea that there is one best outcome is pervasive; there is one Super Bowl winner, one person elected president, and so on. We absorb the idea that "best" is a singular concept. </p>
<p>But what if you changed your conception a bit? What if you decided that because we don't have perfect knowledge (of ourselves, the future, etc), that "best" means a group of things and that you really can't distinguish between them? You decide that rather than best meaning a unique choice, it applies to a basket of choices and you prefer anything in that basket over your other options.</p>
<p>So maybe you know that you definitely don't want to major in math or biochem, but that history, psychology, or sociology would all be attractive choices? In other words, there is no ONE best choice but any of these 3 would do? Given the limits of human knowledge you can't predict all the effects of your choice, so as far as can be told when you make the decision all 3 are equally "best". There is a term for this approach, satisficing, and it can save days if not years of agonizing over making the one best choice in a lot of areas.</p>
<p>In closing, let me say that your angst is a good thing, although I'm sure it doesn't seem that way now ;) It means you're coming to grips with the adult world, where one has to make important choices in the face of considerable uncertainty. And like the rest of us, you'll make the choices and hope for the best.</p>
<p>And don't forget, no choice you make today is definitive or unchangeable. I majored in psychology, got a master's in public health, went on to law school, and after many years of practicing, am now a business analyst. Before I'm done, I may very well change my career again! That's the beauty of the system. So don't stress over your major - it's not an irrevocable choice!</p>
<p>Seriously! Its not that risky. I majored in anthro, studied abroad at Oxford and the university of Barcelona, got a 10K anthro grant to do my thesis research. Then I got a consulting job and just graduated with an MBA from a top school, and I just started my dream job working directly for the CEO of one of the best Ad agencies in the world doing business development. Oh yeah, I managed to go to film school this past summer just for fun. I am hopefully going to start a company in a couple years, and I'm only 26! </p>
<p>its about embracing opportunity in life, not running away!</p>
<p>The</p>
<p>I couldn't even finish reading your post I feel the same way. I've NEVER been that into school, the learning part has always come pretty easily for me (i am not trying to brag or anything, that does NOT necessarily make a person smart!) and I've always been bored. I'm by no means a slacker- I'm fascinated by a ton of stuff and mostly have occupied my time with books and music and other stuff I'm into like government, world events, shopping, etc. ;) anyway, I applied ED to a school and seriously (my lack of commitment skills and inability to make up my mind probably contributed to this) I regret doing so first off and second, I just don't want to go to college. Last summer I thought seriously about going into the peace corps for a year but I had a feeling if I didn't go to school right away I would never go. I love to learn, but I haven't really been able to get over the feeling that I'm just going to be excrutiatingly (sp? maybe I'll learn how to spell in college) bored there as well. I have come to a conclusion recently though that my disillusionment with college in general probably comes from my boredom in school throught my whole life, especially in high school where lord knows there is little to no intellectual stimulation. So, hopefully once the summer is through and we make it into our lovely little rank and stank dorms and start our college lives, we will be able to be glad and more thankful for what we have!</p>
<p>i took a gap year and studied abroad -- it was the best decision i ever made. consider something like that if you're really unsure about college. that way, you won't feel like a slacker cause you'll still be studying somewhere (a language for example) but it'll be more relaxed than college and you'll have time to chill and figure out what you want.</p>
<p>how did you study abroad?</p>