Every semester when ASU releases the new course schedule, I’m reminded of a quote from Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”: “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest.”
And therein lies my conflict with college. I don’t want to narrow my focus of learning: I want to widen my focus. While broadening horizons is certainly a benefit of a collegiate education, the main aim is to develop an advanced level of knowledge about a particular subject. I don’t want to settle down with a major. I want to pursue all of them.
I began my college career as an English major and almost immediately switched to political science. I immersed myself in that track, but eventually it began to wear on me. Keeping up with politics is exhausting and stressful, so I decided to supplement my coursework with a history degree.
I am infected with a kind of intellectual wanderlust, a desire to learn more about the world around me from a different perspective.
I deal with words and theories mostly, but I miss having numbers and formulas in my life. I miss having concrete answers and an ability to gauge accuracy.
I want to explore business classes and learn new languages. I want to study chemistry and physics or anthropology and psychology. I want to teach and I want to write. I want to do everything, to learn about everything, to travel everywhere.
Before college, during the application period, the goal was becoming a well-rounded student with a background that would appeal to an admissions board.
In a university setting, well roundedness is no longer a virtue in and of itself. Because I am restless in my studies, I am sort of a dilettante.
But reality precludes this possibility. There aren’t enough hours in the day or enough days in the year for me to satisfy this wanderlust. I must choose one way or the other. But I will never fully be sure that I chose my majors and future career path correctly.
Perhaps this is because there is no correct answer to such a question. Perhaps this is because I am plagued with attention deficits and acute indecision.
Perhaps this is just par for the course for a 20-year-old college student. I know very few of my fellow students who have not changed their major or added a second degree or a minor.
These additional programs help to supplement and enhance the college experience, and in the current economy a single college degree does not confer quite the same level of experience or workforce preparedness it once did.
This fact is a source of my anxiety regarding what I want to study.
I’m still stuck in the pre-college mode of wanting to be well rounded for my future career. And even after I graduate, I will still feel the sting of opportunity costs in my education.
Reach the columnist at skthomas4@asu.edu or follow her at @SavannahKThomas
Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@gmail.com. Keep letters under 300 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Anonymity will not be granted.
