I feel like college made me lose all of my ambition.

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I've always heard that college is where you discover your passions. Ever since I've come to college, I feel like I've lost all of my passions though. I no longer have any sense of direction in my life, have no ambitions to pursue opportunities, am not involved in anything... </p>

<p>In high school I was a "successful" and "well-rounded" student. I made all A's, took honors and AP classes, was involved in marching band, student government, national honor society, key club, off campus extracurriculars and community service... I was successful at everything I did and felt like I had a lot of achievements. I got a presidential scholarship to my current school and numerous offers from other schools. And then since coming to college, there's just nothing. I'm not involved in clubs or extracurriculars or community service. I know that's partially my fault, but part of it is that there aren't many clubs I want to join, and those that I do want to participate in meet when I have work or lab so I can't join them. Same with extracurriculars. Also, with community service it's hard to do volunteer work because I don't know what's around or how to get involved. I've done a bunch of research but the only things I've come up with are things that I'm not passionate about, or things that require you to volunteer a certain amount of hours per week that I wouldn't be able to every week. I think part of my problem too is that I'm bored with my classes. My classes in college are definitely way easier than my classes in high school, which I feel like is backwards.</p>

<p>I also don't have interest in pursuing opportunities. I haven't applied for internships or scholarships or anything. I look at the people around me that have all these cool opportunities like working in DC for the summer or studying abroad and things like that, but when an opportunity comes my way I'm just not motivated to take it at all. I no longer have any interest in my major or going to grad school, whereas before I did. I no longer care about taking classes and doing things that will make me look better to grad schools and employers, I just want to get out. </p>

<p>I just feel like I'm a bum now; I was successful in high school but I'm a failure in college. My grades are good, but I have no interest in pursuing cool opportunities, I have no idea what I want to pursue as a future career, no idea what I want to major in, and just no direction or goals or ambition at all. Is this normal to experience? It's just so weird to me to not have ambition because I used to be so full of it. Thanks for any advice!</p>

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<p>I clicked on your username and saw you wrote back in November that you disliked your school and were thinking of transferring. I hope you put in the apps because it sounds like your current school isn’t right for you.

And now you understand the downside of merit scholarships. They give them to kids that are significantly stronger than their typical student in order to entice them to enroll. But once enrolled you find that the classes are geared towards those other students, the level of academic interest and discussion is dominated by them, etc. You aren’t being challenged because you were specifically picked as a student that probably wouldn’t find this school a challenge; instead you were given a steep discount and the opportunity to make your own way (as it were).</snip></p>

<p>I’d also be remiss if I didn’t suggest you meet with a counselor at the student health clinic to be screened for depression and have your health checked. Loss of interest in things you used to find enjoyable, loss of motivation, and abandoning your dreams/goals could be signs of a physical illness having as one of its symptoms depression, a side effect of a medication you may be taking, or just depression itself.</p>