Distraught About My College Situation

HopelessLoser
Sat, 20 Sep 2014 07:30:03 +0000

I’ll try to keep this brief.

I’m a “junior” at a big state school and I put junior in quotes because, while it is my third year in college, I do not consider myself to truly be a junior because I’m about as close to graduating as a first semester freshman.

I entered college having no idea what I would like to major in and now after taking a wide range of survey courses my first two years, I am still no closer to knowing what I would like to pursue. Perhaps even less so now because so many options are closed this late into the game (especially the most practical ones like engineering and computer science).

Heretofore there was no subject that particularly stood out to me as something I’d like to pursue further, but this semester I have found myself enjoying the introductory statistics class I am taking (perhaps because we haven’t gotten into the harder material yet). But even if I did fall in love with statistics, the degree requires math through calculus III and I only know math to the pre-algebra level, having majorly slacked off in high school.

What’s more, my school has a foreign language requirement of 2 years/4 semesters of a non-primary language (or 4 years in high school, which I of course did not achieve). I transferred into my current school after two years at a community college, and my first year there (my “freshman” year if you want to call it that) I took Spanish 101 and 102 and foolishly did not pursue it further, because I had thought that it was only 2 semesters that were required of me, not 2 years. I have since essentially forgotten all but the very basics, which would mean I would have to start the 4 semester sequence over again.

With these setbacks and no real direction, I cannot help but feel utterly hopeless. My future in college looks like an endless tunnel and I see no way of getting out in anything less than 4 additional years. I have this recurring image in my head of me as a near-30 year old, having only just now gotten my bachelors, sitting amidst spry 22 year olds at a job interview waiting room, and then having to explain why it says “Bachelors Degree from State School (2012-2020)” on my resume instead of a clean 4 year interval of 2012-2016. It just makes me want to do myself in. I am only 20 and I feel like I have already been condemned to a mediocre life.

Well, so much for keeping it short. But I wanted to provide sufficient context so you could see just how bleak things appear to be. And this is not even taking my severe social struggles into account. But that’s for another thread.

I know at this point there is no route in which I could get a worthwhile degree while still graduating on time, so I don’t know what I hoped to hear back by posting this. I guess I just needed to vent more than anything. That said, I’d still love to hear any and all advice you can give.

Thank you.

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