When You Think You’ve Lost Yourself In College (Or After)


Senior year, the counselors remind you, “You really should choose a major before you accept a college’s offer. Don’t you know your interests? Don’t you know what you want to be? What about those classes I told you to take? Didn’t they help?”



No. They really didn’t. They made you realize that you hate calculus, and wonder why anybody would ever even need to evaluate a sinusoidal function in real life. It’s enough to give you a migraine, want to crawl back under your covers and say,

“At least I’m safe in here. I’m never leaving again.”



Even in college, you throw yourself into your academics. You take internships and try to make good impressions at networking events. 

What nobody tells you, what I am going to tell you right now, is that the job(s) you take after you graduate do not define who you are.

Your purpose is more than a college degree and a desk in an office. It’s so much more than your nine to five job. 

Somewhere along the line, underneath the pile of uncertainty and stress, you forgot that you are more than your career.



It’s okay to throw yourself into a career, into a project, especially if it makes you feel good.

But you need to remember the many, many more important things than that job. 

You are your passions. You are the decisions you make. You are the people you love. You are the things that scare you. You are the things that make you angry, and the things that confuse you.

You are your quirks, ticks, and habits. You are the smile on your face. Make sure you chase those things. Make sure you keep… you.