Why is it so hard to find your path in life?

“I’m not an author, I’m a writer, that’s all I am. Authors want their names down in history. I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.” -Mickey Spillane

I have a friend who’s graduating high school soon, and she knows exactly what she wants to do with her life (for now). She has her major planned out, as well as the career to follow. Meanwhile? I’m over here struggling to figure out what my business major should be, and I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life. I mean, I know that no matter what I do professionally, I need to be able to write on the side. It’s who I am. For me, being a writer is the same as being human—it’s in my blood, in my bones, and in my soul.

But writing is not always the most profitable profession, and even the Big Wig names in the field sometimes took decades to get where they are. Writers, just like actors, singers, and painters, can spend a good chunk of their lives as starving artists.

Here’s the thing, though: Everyone expects college students to have it all figured out. We have to know our major and our expected profession (just like my friend does) – and we get some pretty weird looks when we admit we have no idea what we’re doing with our lives. Though college is often seen as a great time to explore not just the world, but also ourselves, we students have to have a vision, we must know the path our lives will take.

And I’m downright sick of that. I’m a junior, year-wise, and a senior, credit-wise. I’ve declared two majors in one school and am still fumbling to declare a third in the second school in which I’m dual degree-ing. I know I want to write, but my majors aren’t exactly related to that pursuit. I’m sort of swimming through the masses here, not quite sure which stream is mine.

What keeps me up the most at night is knowing I’m not alone—a lot of us are struggling to determine what we want to get out of our education and which doors we want it to open for us. There are hundreds of memes that perfectly capture the universal atypical student probs of the day. These go beyond finding our way and actually manage to encompass the full spectrum of daily student problems from being in a state of perpetual poverty, to waking up an hour after your first class is over, to carting your laundry off to your parents’ house on the weekend to get out of that dollar per load nonsense.

Thankfully, though, the University does provide some help—in the form of guidance. My business advisor and I recently had a meeting in which she helped focus my goals for the business world, and even choose a tentative major. Beyond that, Pitt does have the Office of Student Affairs which houses the CDPA—the Career Development and Placement Assistance. They’ll help you explore majors and careers, find jobs and internships, prep for your interviews, and so much more.

In addition, Pitt offers all students free access to FutureLinks, a comprehensive career management system for internship and job postings (full- and part-time), upcoming event listings, On-Campus Interviewing and Information Session opportunities.

Between the resume review, mock interview, and moving conversation with my advisor, I’m that much closer to figuring out what to do with my life.