I have always been a planner. My notes app is filled with to-do lists, reminders, and anecdotes—a tangible, terrifyingly disorganized snapshot of the inside of my brain.
I came to college with a set plan—a political science major on a pre-medical track, setting myself up to go to medical school. In my essays and interviews, I spoke confidently about my plans, excited to take the next step toward my dream career. Everyone around me commended my focus and determination yet reminded me to keep an open mind. “You never know what you might discover,” they told me. But I brushed it off, confident I had done my due diligence in mapping out the perfect career path for myself.
I like to make well-informed decisions, sometimes to an excessive degree. Before buying a new pair of jeans, I browse every page of the website, ensuring I have exhausted every option before I make my final purchase. When picking a restaurant or activity in a new city, I scour every TikTok and Yelp review, creating an extensive list of “contenders” and slowly narrowing them down.
I’m unsure what I fear might happen if I make the wrong choice, as most of my overly thorough decisions are rather inconsequential. I tell myself I just want to make the best choices, have the best time, or spend my money wisely. Realistically, it’s probably a fear of not having total control.
Behind the scenes, my focused and specific career-path decisions were made with a similar level of thoroughness, scrolling through every major offering and pondering what career each might lead to. I slowly narrowed my list to two options, politics and medicine, and was pleased when I found a way to pursue both. I checked and double-checked my plans and became content with my decision. Unsurprisingly, I made an unnecessarily organized and aesthetically pleasing four-year course plan, laying out all my major, pre-med, and core requirements, with a few spaces to spare for fun classes (ha, if those even exist).
By the time sophomore year rolled around, I had one open space in my fall course schedule. In typical fashion, I scrolled through literally every single course offered at Boston College, carefully cultivating a list of ten or so options, seeking out the syllabi, reading the course reviews, and narrowing it down until I was left with one option. Introduction to Journalism. I have always loved watching the news, and I also like to write, so I thought it would be fun. Plus, a once-a-week seminar is always a nice perk.
After the first day of class, I knew I had made the right choice. I walked out of Stokes and immediately started texting my parents and friends all the cool new insider facts I had learned from my professor. From then on, I anxiously awaited every class and grew more and more eager to dive deeper into the field. I had never been so excited to learn before. Everyone around picked up on my excitement, encouraging me to lean into this new interest. But one thing stood in the way. My plans. I had already worked so hard to integrate political science with my pre-med and core curriculum, how was I supposed to add journalism too? But, as I learned, when you’re passionate about something, you make it work.
I applied and was accepted to the journalism minor. I began to edit my four-year course plan that I thought was set in stone, trying to make room for my new minor requirements. With a few summer courses and a bit of overloading, I made it work. People definitely thought I was crazy, but I knew I couldn’t ignore this passion. And I was right. My journalism courses at BC have all been my favorite classes, and I still talk about them with the same enthusiasm I did on that very first day.
Now, as my career looms on the horizon, I struggle again with having a lack of a plan. Trying to integrate coursework in medicine, politics, and journalism is hard. Trying to consolidate them into a cohesive career is harder. My passions for each are different, yet equal, and I would feel incomplete without one. As I work to rectify these interests and reflect on my journey at BC, I take this as a lesson for life, too. As much as you may want to have every future decision planned out, there will always be unpredictable factors that get in the way.
While I still have trust in my planning instincts, I have learned not to dismiss the reminders to keep an open mind. Both can be done at the same time.
