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More Letters... |
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Stressing Junior
Added on 9/5/2006 |
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| Your Letter: Stressing Junior |
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Dear Penn Peer,
I am feeling severely stressed about the future. I am just a junior and my dad keeps calling me every night (or so it seems) to ask if I have figured out my major and when I am planning on taking my LSATs to go to law school. My parents have always thought I would go to law school and I guess I did too. Now I am not sure anymore. My parents would freak out if I talked to them about this and my friends keep saying that they don't own me and I should "do whatever I want to do," but it isn't that easy. I think I want to become an English major (I might have to stay an extra year) but I am not particularly good at it and I don't know what I would do after graduation. I guess I'd like to know what I would do after graduation. I guess I'd like to know how to handle the situation with my parents and figure out what I'd be going to do with my life after school. I feel trapped with no one to turn to for objective advice.
Stressing Junior |
| RAP-Line Peer Reponse. |
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Dear Stressing Junior,
Dealing with not knowing what to do is certainly stressful. There is something about the uncertain which makes everything more difficult, especially if it means you won't be able to give solid answers to the questions people are going to be asking of you. It sounds like the difficulty of trying to figure out what to do with your life is being compounded because of how your parents and friends see life.
Although talking to your parents is going to be difficult and they may freak out, it may be something you could consider doing. If you wanted it might make it easier to practice with a friend. Have them be your parents and act out the worst case scenario of how they might respond. If that isn't something that you would want to do, you could just think of questions they are likely to ask such as "why do you think that you don't want to go to law school" or "what is it that makes you want to study english?" Having answers to their questions ahead of time can make it easier for you to talk to them and it might help clear up some of your own confusion. Other things you could consider are what sort of compromises would you be able to live with. Could you be an english major and take the LSATs just in case? Another option is to sound them out gradually. Find out which things they are most likely to object to and then be prepared to reassure them about those particular issues. Although parents can be unreasonable, sometimes if they see that you have really thought things through it helps calm them down.
Of course, a lot of this is dependent on your having answers which is in itself a difficult problem. Perhaps starting with the basics would be a way to begin. If you ask yourself why you might want to study english and why you are no longer sure that you want to study law, you might have a better understanding of what you are looking for out of life. Another option is to go down to the Career Planning and Placement Center (898-7531) and talk to someone there, you could find out what kinds of things you can do with an english degree and see if any of those careers appeal to you or you could look through books for ideas if you want to. Another option is talking to people in the english department for suggestions (4th floor, Bennett Hall) as to what kind of work you can expect after college with an english degree.
This is a weighty topic but it might relieve some of the stress of your decision to know that people change jobs often and that whatever you decide doesn't have to be forever. If you still feel the need to discuss these issues with someone, the RAPline is open from 9-2, 7 nights a week at 573-2RAP. Best of luck as you work through this.
Penn Peer.
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