Ignore the names, you don't know the people...

<rant>
Currently, I have no major. Now, it's not like this is a shocker. Quite frankly, most of you probably know this. Then again, most of you already know your major too. For example, I know multiple people (here at Ripon and back home) that want to go into music related professions, mainly like being a music teacher. I can think of a couple people who want to be special needs teachers. My roomie is a business major. Derek is a French and Poly-Sci major, and Michael wants to major in Spanish and Biology. Brice is going to be an EMT, and countless others I know of are also going into medical fields. Keith is going into game development, while Essence is going into the wonderful world that is the media. Everywhere I look, people seem to know what they want to be, but I don't. Is that a problem?

I used to think it wasn't, that it was better not to declare your major until you are certain, and to take a year (or two) in college and think about it. It seemed better than constantly switching your major left and right. But is that really such a good idea?

Two weeks ago, some older students were brought into our FYS class to talk to us about...well...anything, really. Someone asked about majors, and the resounding agreement was to declare as early as possible, because you can always change it. Declaring early, they said, also gives you more ability to pick which courses you do for your major (because if a course becomes required for your major after you had already declared said major, you do not have to take the course). Still, I wasn't deterred. I knew that I would figure out what I wanted to be eventually.
The following week, I went to the Armchair Association (philosophy club). Most of the people there, including sophomores and even freshman, had declared their majors (or at least knew what it was going to be). I was amazed then that there were so many different majors in the philosophy club (such as Religion, Studio Art, Theatre, and Physics even) that didn't seem to relate to philosophy (mind you, I think only one or two people in the club weren't majoring or minoring in it). As I think about it again now, I realize that I was the only one there who didn't know what their major was to be (and trust me, I don't think it'll be philosophy [and if it is, it'll be part of a double or triple major]). Is that a bad thing?

It seems to me that, by now, most people know what program they are going into or even exactly what job. But here I am, with a radio show, political columns in the school paper, member of the AA, tutoring at the high school if Meg has her way, and still contemplating other things like Law, French, Theatre (I really should have tried out for the play...) and Psychology. Plus, there is also TLOK which I am periodically working on for seemingly no reason. You could say I'm giving all these things the "college try," or you could say that I'm just test-driving a lot of cars before I decide which one to take home. Whichever way you look at it, the fact remains that I don't know, and I'm not sure I like that.

There are a few reasons. Other than the fact that everyone else seems to know, I am also bothered by the fact that I can never give my full attention to one thing, because I'd be neglecting everything else. It seems counter-intuitive. If I work toward one thing, my progress in the others is hindered (as I found out when I waited to do my article until almost the last minute because I was focusing on psych, law, and the radio). This prevents me from truly trying everything, for I am spreading myself way too thin. However, this doesn't bother me as much as the main reason why I don't like not having declared a major.

In case you haven't seen my statuses recently, I am a collectivist and not an individualist (though individualists have nothing to do with this rant). Being a collectivist, my goal in life is to get along with and further the group (finding my place and performing my role). In that aspect, not knowing my role is a huge problem. Many of you probably don't believe that I am serious about this. After all, I have never been big on fitting in or anything of the like. Well, let me cite a conversation I had on the bus back from an Academic Team meet last year. While talking with mini Thorsen, I brought up how I felt that I should do what I need to do and not necessarily what I want to do. It may be a shock to you that I am considering jobs that would make me amazingly unhappy because it may be where the group needs me most, where society needs me most. I can blame not knowing on society, for society has not yet told me where I can best help the group. The idea that I would do something I dislike for a living because that is where I belong is perfectly tolerable to me, because it is where I belong. Whether I am happy or not doesn't matter because I'm not an individualist (so I guess I lied at the start of this paragraph). Besides, once I figure out what I am supposed to do, then I can go about making myself happy doing it.

This still leaves a problem. Society isn't telling me where I need to be, and I am spreading myself a little too thin to be able to tell based upon my academic programs. What do I do then? Well, I guess that is truly the question. What do I do about not knowing what I am going to do? If that doesn't confuse you then you are better than I, for I have spent years trying to figure this out and have gotten nowhere.
Well, that's not true. I have gotten somewhere. I've ruled out playing guitar professionally in the future...
</rant>