Film Review

What do You Want to do with Your Life? 

It’s a fair question, albeit one of the more difficult questions one has to answer in their lifetime. Some people are born with the deep-seated feeling that they are going to be a musician, actor, doctor, teacher, etc.. Others are not so lucky. It can take years and multiple failed career attempts to gain insight. In my case, it took four years at college, three ideas for the future, two majors, and one endless existential crisis. Here I am, going into my final semester of college and I have completely changed my major from Early Childhood Education to English, two seemingly different majors. Not exactly. Each one requires an understanding of the human mind to form connections. The big difference being one requires children, yet both can help shape a generation. 

Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Maya Angelou, J.K. Rowling, Bob Dylan. All styles, genres, and themes varied, no doubt that they inspires those who read them. All it takes is a little spark of creativity to create a personal interaction. I have spent a better part of this semester delving into the mind of Virginia Woolf. I have never felt more comfortable exploring my inner world, all thanks to novels like To the Lighthouse and The Waves. Her work inspires me to understand myself and to figure out how to make intense personal connections with those in the external world. I thought I had done a pretty good job of showing my true self to some of my closest friends and my parents. Though the more I thought about it, I could see why Woolf found it so hard to make these connections. There will always be parts of yourself that you hide away due to fear of judgment or rejection. If you ever truly want to know someone you have to be able to trust them with these parts of yourself.

It was through this one semester of English courses that I finally felt like I belonged to something bigger than myself. Maybe it’s that inner Rory Gilmore part of my soul being let free to explore the world. It was perfectly acceptable that I had no idea what I wanted out of my life. Yet now, instead of answering “what do you want to do with your life?” with “I don’t know, what do you want to do with YOUR life?” or some other form of self defense, I can now say “you know, I think I want to be a journalist.” I have such an intense passion for music that working for a magazine that specializes in the music industry would be my dream job. Though I would settle for a job critiquing films and literature because they bring me joy. I want to shout from the rooftops about how much I love Virginia Woolf. That if you’re struggling to deal with depression and anxiety, buy a copy of So Sad Today or The Princess Saves Herself in this One, you never know what might help you through this exhausting journey of life. 

The point of all this is, if you don’t know what you want to do do not settle for something just because you are afraid of the future. I was afraid to change my major my SENIOR year of college, and here I am, more content with the decision than I have ever been before. Go out there and explore. Say screw you to the college system and take all the wide variety of courses you want to, take a year off and work odd jobs as a temp, sign up for the military, I don't know. Just do whatever feels right and whatever makes you happy. Even if your circumstances do not allow for you to attend college or move from job to job, pick up a hobby. Try not to lose yourself to the world and refuse to answer “what do you want to do with your life” until you are satisfied with the answer.