Teen Talk
College Decisions
By: Madison Dalton
This past month’s mail was glutted with the last deluge of college acceptance letters, and now, for many high school seniors, it’s decision time. For the vast majority of our more astute students, high school has consisted of schedules gorged with AP classes, leadership positions, sports, jobs, and school clubs—done partly—if not mostly, for the sake of slapping them on a college resume, in order to get into a “good” college, to get a “good” job, to be “successful.” By similar logic, many of these soon-to-be high school graduates feel that ‘college decision time’ also sticks them on the precipice of ‘life decision time.’ AP classes mean that for many students, that first year of gen-ed classes is at least partially completed. This means that students essentially need to choose their career paths their freshman year of college. Changing one’s mind can mean a huge waste of time, money, and potential. In reality, as many colleges specialize in certain fields, many students ought to choose their career paths before they choose a university. I for one am not close to being ready to make a decision like that, and I am not alone. I’m just thankful to be a current junior and have a few more months before I need to solidify my decisions for potential colleges.
Like many of my fellow classmates, I have begun lowering down my potential career fields. I can do math and science; therefore I should become a doctor or an engineer, right? As simplistic as it may sound, I am once again not alone in this reasoning. I also dislike math and science with a – if not burning – then lukewarm passion. Again – not alone. So why would so many kids who vehemently dislike math and science go into careers that intensely focus on these fields? Well, I guess it comes down to four words: money, job security, respect. In one word: “success”. Granted, there are plenty of people who do truly love math and science and genuinely do want to become an engineer or doctor in order to make the world a better place. To these individuals I offer a hearty “kudos”, but they are also in the minority. The notion that people in general do not strive to be admired, wealthy, and powerful is sweet but also inaccurate. In reality, our society places engineers, doctors, physicists, etc on a very high pedestal, which is fine, until someone has very admirable reasons for following a much-less admired career path.
My sister, a current UF undergrad, is a prime example of this phenomenon. Thanks to AP classes, she had most of her gen-ed classes completed her freshman year and so had to pick a career path to follow. Not feeling particularly passionate about anything, she decided to go into chemical engineering. Why? Because she was capable of passing the classes and engineering offered good job security. Fair enough. Well, she’s recently decided to change her major to elementary education. Why? She simple decided that sticking needles into a test tube all day was not for her. She wanted to touch and impact lives directly. Fair enough. But ever since switching her major she has expressed doubt and concern about her change. Not so much because she thinks she will dislike teaching, but because of the negative light our society throws on it. Because of the disappointed look in people’s eyes when she tells them she switched her major form engineering to education. That look that says “oh, so you weren’t smart enough to pass engineering classes” because obviously anyone who could pass those classes would take them because obviously no one would make a decision simply because they feel in their heart it is the right choice to make. Seriously?
Honestly, I have no idea what it means to be successful. I won’t even pretend like I do. The word always seemed to me to be a euphemism for “go make money, kid”, to which I respectfully retort, seriously? What I do know is that regardless of what I can and cannot do, I want to spend the better part of my life attempting to make art. That is, attempting to use may words, actions and thoughts (and, ideally, yes my literal art as well) to make the world just a little bit more beautiful of a place than how it was when I was first put into it. And so this is what I have to do. This is what I must do because no one has the right not to try. Because if dreams were really that silly, God would never have planted them into our hearts. And if you don’t believe in a God, consider the fact that evolution ought to have made the “dreamer gene” die out long ago if it were really so fruitless and dangerous. Before you have a conniption, you should know that I’m not going to let my dreams drag me to the point of being a homeless artist begging for pennies on the street. But I do plan to push myself as close to that point as I can go, if that’s what it takes.
My dad tells me that I’m an idealist. Well, of course. Why shouldn’t I have faith enough in myself and humanity in general, to believe that I can wield my attitude readily enough to make each day pleasant, if I so desire. Why shouldn’t my life be ideal? After all, the word is subjective. Loving each day, smiling simply because it feels good, and being brave enough to live unafraid, that is ideal.
So about a week ago I had a mini-meltdown. Very similar to the one my sister had before switching her major to education. I plan to live a relatively long time and I don’t want to live with regrets. Well, long story short, my uncle called and my mom ended up texting him back saying she couldn’t talk because we were deciding my future, trying to figure out if I should become an artist or a writer. His response? “Both. Seriously.” And it’s that “seriously” part that really made me think. There is nothing silly, nothing unrealistic about having faith enough to hope and courage enough to not let one’s feet tremble at the thought of casing dreams. And perhaps that is what success really means. Sprinting. Sprinting down the path less followed because walking sublimely in the wrong direction would be senseless and cowardly, not to mention boring. Success is being so brave and so legitimately excited to live and truly live each day that you never give yourself the chance to regret. Seriously.
Madison Dalton is Junior at Wellington High School. She is an editor of her school’s online newspaper, WHSWave.com. She is also an officer on her school’s debate team, National Honors Society, and community service club, Key club. Madison’s hobbies include writing, running, and drawing. She aspires to be an author and professional artist.