<p>I know I shouldn’t be worrying about this, but it does bother me. Sometimes I feel very anxious about my life after college. I have no idea what I want to do, and I fear the working world, especially moving away from home. I know that I’m only a junior, but I feel that my life in college has been less than ideal academically and socially. My majors guarantee that graduate school is an option (not mandatory, but really helps in the long term). I look at my peers and professors and sometimes wish I can be like them. I don’t see myself as a perfectionist, but I feel that I’m either disappointing people or letting myself down. I have had a few professors ask me if I was considering a PhD/grad school since minority professors are very few in academia. However, I look at my accomplishments and think, “i’m terrible at research. Sure I can write, but Grad school? I don’t even know what to do with my own life!” Life looks scary after college, and I want to make sure I took the right courses, had the right job experiences, did the right research and more. I just don’t want to end up unemployed or employed in a position that is not my true ambitions and interests. If you are curious, I do have a professional psychologist who I meet every other week (around my school schedule) to talk about my problems. Do you have sons/daughters or even someone you know who is very apprehensive about their future?</p>
<p>I haven’t been alive long enough to give you any advice from experience. But I think most people feel this way. I think most people don’t want to look back in 30 some years and say hey, I really should have done this or that.</p>
<p>I would say do what you believe makes you most happy. And if you are wrong, you are still young - you can change jobs / fields. The only thing is that when there are such high expectations from parents, friends, etc. - you feel that you have to do this or that because it will gain you the most respect or the most money; even if it doesn’t make you happy. </p>
<p>Find Conan O’Brien’s Commencement Address to Harvard in 2000. It is very funny, but it also talks about the fact that you should do what you enjoy the most and not be afraid of making mistakes.</p>
<p>I did not know what I was going to do even in senior year. I applied to grad school because other people were applying too. I got in and only discovered after I got in how much I liked doing research.<br>
VirginiaAlum is right. You can change jobs or fields. You don’t have to decide at 20 what you will be doing for the rest of your life. Think about the type of things that make you happy and try to build on them. They can be research, they can be certain academic topics, or they can be extra-academic stuff.
It would be indeed great to have more minority professors, but it is your life; do what you like best, whether it is research and teaching or something totally different.</p>