Who the heck ever decided that I should know what I want to do with my life as soon as I get a degree? I'm 1 year away from a Bachelor's degree and I'm terrified. I also don't feel like I've gotten a particularly well-rounded education.

I have always been interested in human psychology, sociology, sexuality, and the like. Despite that fast when I first started school at the University of Central Florida my goal was to get the heck out of there as soon as possible! I'm not sure what my motivation for that was. I guess I couldn't wait to get out into the real world. But guess what; I've since gotten a little taste of what "the real world" is and consists of and I'm not particularly excited to be thrown out into it anymore.

I started off with a major in General Business. I felt like that would be simple enough and it was broad enough that I didn't need to make any career choices or commitments anytime soon. I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that most business courses felt like job training. DUH, right? I should have known. No offense to anyone who has chosen this path but I just felt like it wasn't for me. I actually did pretty well in some classes that many students had trouble with. These weren't upper-level classes or anything like that. Just general courses likes Microeconomics and Managerial Accounting.

I loved my economics courses and professor so I decided I would major in Economics. Bad move. I soon got tired of analyzing trends and data and statistics. Again, turns out it wasn't for me.

By this time it was the end of my 4th semester at UCF. By this point I definitely should know what I want to do, right? Wrong.

In the summer after my 2nd year I got a job at the university as an Assistant Instructional Designer. This must have been some kind of pivotal point for me. I decided I was interested in Education. Not elementary education or anything like that, but technical education, higher education and adult education.

I was an Education major for a semester or so.

One day I sat down with my handy dandy degree audit and tried to figure out when I would graduate. It wasn't looking good. Then one of my friends (a lifesaver!) suggested a Liberal Arts major. It was great. My credits from the business courses counted toward my degree and those requirements were all done. My education courses were much-needed. All of my other miscellaneous course credits did not go to waste since I chose a concentration in Behavioral & Social Sciences.

So now life is good. I get to take the psychology courses I'm interested it, I have the business courses that will look good, and education will get me to where I want to be.

I'm not sure yet where I want to be but I think a Master's degree is definitely in my future. Perhaps in Educational Technology. We shall see.

I guess the moral of the story is that college is not a race to the finish line. It's just the beginning! Find out what you love. If you haven't figured it out by the time you've earned your first degree you still have options!

Learn more about this author, Ginan Jobarah.
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