THE BEST advice in college is not to take advice. Family, friends, professors and advisors will all have their own opinions on your studies, majors, courses and extracurricular life. However, your life at the University should be determined by you, and only you.
Decisions in college will shape the rest of your life. The friends you make, the courses you take and the clubs you join will influence your personal life and career path. These decisions, therefore, carry some weight.
No one knows your ambitions, personality and interests better than yourself. Whether you make mistakes or meet your future spouse, these decisions should be made by you.
Congratulations on making your first decision -- enrolling at the University. Lucky for you there are so many opportunities and choices at the University. Thousands of courses, organizations and students will be here to greet you in the fall. Should you rely on your parent's advice to be pre-Med or your friend's recommendation to go Greek? No. These decisions are for you.
My only recommendation in this non-advice advice column is to take advantage of these opportunities, especially academically. The best way to decide your path in life is to experience as many subjects as possible. Take courses in different schools. Learn about Chinese history or Russian literature. Enroll in language courses. The academic opportunities, especially in the College, are boundless.
Granted, there are pressures coming from all directions in college -- the goals to succeed, to impress your parents and to build that oh-so-important résumé. Everyone has stories about how to best launch a business career or how to live on the Lawn. In my experiences, each story is unique. There is no "right" way to complete college -- the goal should be to learn and to grow as an individual. So when parents complain about your liberal arts degree or friends recommend their favorite fraternities or sororities, just smile and nod. Your life is on the line and only you know how to make it enjoyable and worthwhile.
Basically college is one big "Choose Your Own Adventure" game. The different paths include academic majors, friends and organizations as you navigate through four years at the University. So just keep moving forward and satisfy your own curiosities and interests. You have the rest of your life to worry about careers and résumé-building.Take this opportunity to find your true passions in European architecture or biochemistry. A degree from the University is like currency -- permanent and useful. The academic major notation is small and anti-climactic. Unless you truly enjoy the subject, it is foolish to invest four years in pre-professional programs and career-oriented majors. What happens if you enter a different industry or win the lottery? You do not want to look back at college and think you wasted four years in the library on a mind-numbing degree. Therefore, personal happiness and intellectual curiosity, not careers or money, should guide your academic decisions during these four years.
There may not be a job waiting after graduation, but at least you can smile and know you had the time of your life. So keep your options open when you arrive in the fall, because you have four years to find what truly makes you happy. I still have no clue what lies ahead, but I am enjoying every minute of my time at the University. So take success stories and advice with a grain of salt -- you are only an undergraduate once, so make the most of these opportunities and determine the major decisions later.
Michael Behr is a Cavalier Daily columnist. He can be reached at mbehr@cavalierdaily.com.
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