I’m a junior in high school and I am trying to decide what I want to do for a living/ what major to choose. I know it’s somewhat early for me but I cannot stop worrying about the future. I really like all of the sciences but I am kind of scared to go into science because I do not want to be in school forever (masters is as far as I will consider going) and I want a decent living too. I really like environmental science (I like going outside) but I do not know what discipline would be the best option as far as employment goes. I think that water resources engineering is very interesting too and I like that I would only need a bachelors but I am not very strong in math (for some reason physics is really easy for me though). I am a dedicated 4.0 student wand I take hard classes but math has always been a struggle and my math SAT is not going to be that great (I would cry for joy if I got a 620). I’m scared that I won’t make it through college I worry that I’m also wasting the talent that I do have which is writing, science, art. I just have no idea how I could utilize my skills and also get a major with a secure job and a decent living. Does anyone have any advice for me? I’m totally lost.
Start looking at schools that would be right for you regardless of whatever major you pursue there. Then once you’re in college, take a wide variety of classes, including the sciences, writing, and arts that you’re interested in. You don’t need to declare a major until sometime your sophomore year, so you’ll have plenty of time then to decide what you want to pursue further
Take things one step at a time. Future you will probably have pretty different opinions on these things. For example, you say that you would’t want to go beyond a masters, but future you might feel quite differently.
All you can do now is try your best so that you have plenty of options available to you.
Also, you would probably happy in a lot of the fields you mentioned. People tend to think finding a career you like is like finding a soul-mate, but–in reality–you don’t just find a field that you are passionate about. You cultivate your interests until they become passions.
Hamilton samples the careers entered by its environmental studies graduates: https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/departments/Home?dept=Environmental%20Studies. This could give you an idea of the variety of directions that might be open to you with a degree in this area.
Here is my own experience and my kid’s experience. I got 790 in SAT math and did well in English sections also and thought I would enjoy and be good in STEM field at an Ivy college – so I thought. Well, I found out I could not stand science or math classes. I changed my major 4 or 5 times to biology, EE, Econ, Physics etc., and finally decided to major in English Lit. I thought I would suck at it because I never wrote anything longer than 1 page in high school (and I was a recent immigrant on top of that), but English Lit turned out to be very easy and enjoyable for me mainly because I didn’t even had to go to lectures to get almost all As.
My kid is at a top 10 college in non-STEM field, and his attitude is to take a wide array of classes so he can find what he likes and dislikes. Sure, he might not get all As, but you have to expose yourself to different areas so you can find out. So don’t worry; just focus on finding where your thing lies. And everything will be ok. Don’t worry so much when you are young. Learn to view any problem as a puzzle to tackle and solve; the sooner you develop this attitude, less worrying you will do. For most people, things don’t turn out exactly as they planned. So plan and do your best but don’t be shocked or disappointed if things don’t go the way you plan things. Life is interesting because not everything goes according to your plan.