Choices. Life is full of them, and like it or not, we all must face a variety of choices every day. But what happens when it becomes harder and harder to make these choices?   

I am indecisive in all aspects of my life. Whether it is deciding what to eat for lunch, what restaurant to go to, or what movie to watch, it takes me a long time to make a decision. And let’s face it, this can be wasteful. Leaving the fridge open while looking for food or driving around in the car while searching for a restaurant wastes energy. But it didn’t strike me as particularly harmful until I found myself stumped when it came to choosing a topic to write about this issue. Not being able to decide what movie to watch or what food to eat is minor, an inconvenience. But if I could not make a decision about what story I wanted to write, it could affect my grade. That’s when I had my epiphany; I saw that I needed to get my life in order.

I have never really been able to figure out what I actually want to do as a career or what college I want to go to. But I have come to the realization that sometimes the two go hand in hand. I began thinking about it as a child of about 6 years old.

All I wanted to do was be a teacher, preferably a special ed teacher like my dad. The job appealed to my young mind in so many ways. My dad’s classroom was a giant playground with swings and toys that were meant to help the students develop their motor skills. I got the idea that being a special ed teacher was all play, no work. But since the fourth grade I have changed my mind a total of 11 times.

Many of the ideas were unrelated such as writer and architect, or professional violinist and ambassador. Now put aside careers and throw college into the mix of choices and my brain goes through indecision overload.

In recent searches for a good college match, I discovered that identifying what you want to do early is especially important. There are some career options that require people to definitely know what major they want to declare as soon as their freshmen year of college starts.

My older brother experienced this when he decided he wanted to pursue a career in chemical engineering. As an incoming freshman he had an undeclared major which restricted him from taking the classes he needed for chemical engineering. During the first week of his freshman year, he needed to petition to change his major to a chemistry major. This goes to show that knowing the major that you want ahead of time is important. But not all colleges have the same programs.

Some colleges may be lacking in the major I might need for the career I may wish to pursue. Or one college may have what I am currently thinking about as a career, but if I change my mind, I would need a backup plan of majors available at that college. For someone like me, who changes her ideas constantly, a thorough college search, with an idea of a few careers and backup plans, is needed.

But for me, beyond the academic side of college, one of the most important factors in choosing a school, is weather. I am not someone in love with sunlight, and more importantly, heat. My college of choice will most likely be in a cold, rainy place. You might not think about it, but if you are going to be living in an area for about four years, then you should at least like the weather. This makes the choice a little easier because I can rule out schools in the valley, and in Southern California where hot summers are expected.

Knowing what you want to do or where you want to go before applying to college is not vital, but it can save you money.  According to  the CollegeBoard website most college students change their major at least once. But the more a student changes their major, the more it is possible that the student must take completely new classes. This means previous classes were a waste and the student may find themselves stuck in college for more than four years, paying more than they had originally planned.

Yes, it’s true that I still do not know what exactly I want to resign myself to doing for the rest of my life. However I know I need to figure it out soon. People keep telling me not to worry, that I am only a junior. But I cannot help but worry. The decisions we make now can affect us for the rest of our lives, and while that is scary, it is something I definitely needed to realize.

As the end of my junior year approaches, I see that I can’t afford to waste time. Sooner than later I will need to narrow down my college choices and begin to figure out what to do with my life. Let’s face it. Who can afford to be indecisive?