REAL TALK: DECISIONS

Ah, life is full of choices, isn't it? While some are easy to make (burgers for dinner all day, every day), others aren't quite as clear-cut as we hope they would be. And while I'm by no means a wise adult with years of experience backing me up, I can say that if there's one thing I learned in college so far (that's not related to mitochondria or calculus), it's that life is full of decisions, and no matter which ones you make, you need to live with that choice. Last year was a struggle, as I had been lucky enough to have the choice between going to two of some of the best public universities on the west coast. The end of high school was approaching, and it was up to me to decide how the next "chapter" of my life would go. I had written about it last summer in this post after deciding to attend the University of Washington right here in Seattle.

Admittedly, I was apprehensive at first about this choice. I wanted to pursue a degree in English, as I had planned to take that plan with me to Berkeley. But by attending UW, which was better known for its Science/Engineering/Pre-Med programs, I knew that I should be pursuing a STEM degree. So I signed up for chemistry, astrobiology, and computer science, and set out with the plan to pursue pre-med.

After two quarters of taking rigorous science classes that I had absolutely no interest in, I couldn't stand it anymore and knew I had to get out of these classes before it was too late to change my mind. Now I was stuck in a pickle. I didn't want to do STEM, and I didn't want to pursue English, and it seemed that literally nothing interested me anymore. In other words, I have had no goals.

It took all of nine weeks to figure out what my next move would be and which classes I should take. And while I'm actually still crossing my fingers hoping that I've made the right choices for my life, I've learned that life is what you make of it, and that you should live with no regrets. We'll make wrong choices, and we'll make right choices. But none of these choices would matter if we didn't learn from them. I learned to stop worrying about the past, and start looking toward the future. And most importantly, I have to work hard for what I want to achieve, and it's all up to me. So live with your choices and make the most of it. Move forward!