f only I had a nickel for every time I was asked that pesky question ... in particular, 
by some overly-concerned adult!  I swear, if I hear it one more time, I'll launch into a 
screaming fit!  It's right along the same lines as the annoying, "where do you see yourself 
in ten years?"  As a student wrapping up my freshman year at the University of Southern 
California in Los Angeles, even the question "what's your major?"can pose a bit of a problem.  
At this point in my life, I simply feel that such questions are too restrictive.  Why is society 
fixated on categorizing everyone into neat little groups?  I thought that college was meant to 
be a process of self-discovery, rather than a mere obstacle on the way to a career that's been 
predetermined since kindergarten!  Yet you'd be amazed at the pitying stares you receive when 
you tell someone that you're undecided.  You'd think that you'd just told them that you'd been 
diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor!

I'm here to reassure all those "lost souls" out there that there is nothing wrong with not 
knowing what you want to do.  My first year of college has been a veritable roller coaster of 
trying on and discarding various ideas of "what I want to be when I grow up."  Like most people, 
I felt the overwhelming pressure to settle on a career before entering college, and so I arrived 
at USC as a declared broadcast journalism major.  The only experience I had in this area was 
co-hosting my high school news program, which was more sketch-comedy than real news, and yet on 
the basis of that alone, I decided on my major.  However, it took me less than two weeks after 
arriving on campus to realize that I didn't like the news enough to keep me interested for a 
semester, let alone for the rest of my professional life!  Suddenly major-less, I felt adrift 
in a sea of indecision.  I was compelled to pick a new major to attach myself to, and quickly.  
Like any drowning person would, I grabbed out for anything that appeared it would keep me afloat.

Fortunately for me, a freshman entering a major university, the possibilities as to what I could 
study were endless.  Indeed, they were almost too endless.  How could a person possibly be 
expected to pick one thing from so many exciting and diverse fields?  I realized that in order 
to make up my mind, I needed to try a bit of everything ... and so, I did.

General education requirement classes, while receiving countless complaints from students who 
feel that they are pointless busy-work, can be a blessing in disguise because they open up 
worlds that students might otherwise not know existed.  My first semester of college, my classes 
consisted of literature, French, geology, and film, quite the diverse course load.  Being 
exposed to a variety of different fields helped to narrow my list of possible careers.  Based on 
my experience, I could quickly decide if I thought a subject was interesting enough to pursue 
further.  Not having a major was scary, and during those first few weeks of classes, there was 
no career I didn't consider.  There was even a point when I (a self-professed science-hater) 
pondered what it would be like to be a geologist.  You know, studying volcanic rocks in Hawaii 
wouldn't be so bad ... however, a day of hell spent looking at fault lines in the San Gabriel 
Mountains erased that idea from my mind!  My other classes as well, while at first interesting, 
successively made me realize all the things I couldn't do for a career.  And so began the process
of elimination.

Engaging in a variety of activities also helped to provide an answer to the weighty question, 
"who am I?," and consequently, "what do I want to do with my life?"  Activities enriched my 
college freshman experience, and I tried and discarded them much in the same way that I did 
possible careers.  For instance, photography had been my passion in high school, so I applied 
to be a staff photographer at our school paper, the Daily Trojan.  However, I quickly realized 
that the pressure of a deadline was not something I could handle, especially when called with 
an assignment the night before it was due.  Entertaining a possible career in political science,
I ran for my building government, which turned out to be a miserable failure!  I went to 
countless introductory meetings for this club and that club, with each one deciding that it 
wasn't for me, and never reappearing after the first meeting.  I even played a few games for 
my building volleyball team, before deciding that getting beaten over and over again was not 
much fun!
  
In the midst of all this experimentation, one of the most important things I learned was not to 
avoid trying something new because I was intimidated by my lack of experience.  Sure, trying 
something new always runs the risk of making a fool out of yourself in front of your 
more-experienced peers, but really, what have you got to lose?  And if you let yourself be 
intimidated, you might be missing out on something that you end up loving.  A prime example 
of this was my foray into theatre.  Among the many things I tried during my freshman year, it 
was one of the few that stuck.
  
Having never acted in a play in my life and having virtually no theatre experience, I decided 
to jump right in amidst all of the theatre majors and give it a shot.  I auditioned for an 
independent, student-run theatre organization, and to my amazement, I was cast in one of their 
one-act plays.  From that point on, I found a new love.  In addition to acting, I worked stage 
crew for a play, helping with costume and makeup changes, and performing special effects.  I 
also joined the women's theatre ensemble on campus and performed scenes with them at Take Back 
the Night, a march protesting sexual violence.  Due to my involvement, I am constantly asked if 
I'm a theatre major, and no one can distinguish between me and those who've already had years 
and years of experience in drama.  This just goes to show that it is never too late to try 
something new, and the diverse environment of college is an excellent springboard from which 
to launch a new career or interest.
	
In addition to falling into the theatre world, college opened many other doors for me as well.  
A positive side-effect of my ill-fated decision to major in broadcast journalism was my 
admittance to the Annenberg School for Communication.  The school sent me daily emails 
regarding jobs, internships, speakers, and volunteer opportunities.  Following along on the 
same political science vein that induced me to run for building government, I received an email 
about the inner-city economic summit that was being put on by Operation Hope and decided to 
volunteer.  Although I had to arrive at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning and work a long, hard, 
8-hour shift, the experience was invaluable.  Not only did I get to meet delegates from 
Washington D.C. and prominent figures in the Los Angeles area, I got to hear Vice-President 
Al Gore speak about issues affecting the inner city.  It was a one-of-a-kind experience that 
was opened up to me simply because I was a college student.
  		
Another of those experiences came from a requirement of my sociology class (another general 
education class).  We became volunteers for Joint Educational Project, a service organization 
that takes students into schools in the underprivileged neighborhoods surrounding USC to become 
teachers and mentors to the younger students.  I was assigned as a teacher's aide for a 
kindergarten class, and I helped the young children improve their reading, writing, and math 
skills.  Through this experience of working directly with children, my perspective was expanded 
beyond my own limited experience, to that of the greater community.  The enrichment I received 
goes to show that some of the most important things you learn in college are learned outside of 
the classroom.  Often, the most valuable information that you gain cannot be taught by a 
professor, instead you must learn it from your own experience.

In accordance with this philosophy, I, the ambitious freshman that I am, have just successfully 
landed an internship with a film development/production company.  This internship comes after 
recently deciding that I want to make my living working in the entertainment industry.  Although 
I could see myself employed in any number of fields, since I am living in the entertainment 
capital of the world, I figured I should try to take advantage of my situation.  USC offers a 
unique program that teaches the entertainment industry as an academic discipline.  This 
cutting-edge program, offered through the Annenberg School for Communication, is exciting 
because it provides students with excellent preparation for a career in the entertainment 
industry.  Taking advantage of the expertise of my school career center to offer input on my 
resume, I was able to get an internship to gain industry experience.  I will be able to take 
part in the film development process, observing the movie business first-hand and deciding if 
it's truly what I want to do for a living.  Many people believe that freshman year is too early 
to start an internship, but I figure, why wait?  There are so many opportunities that are 
waiting to be taken advantage of given the slightest bit of initiative, and internships are a 
great way to get real-world experience and decide if a career is right for you.

Seeing as how  I am an advocate of dabbling in a bit of everything to find my niche, I will be 
keeping up that tradition into my sophomore year.  In addition to my new major of communication,
 I'll be taking beginning guitar classes, adding a French minor, applying to the school newspaper
 (again), taking a more active role in my women's theatre ensemble as the person in charge of 
correspondence and public relations, and writing a short play that hopefully will be produced 
by the same student theatre organization that I performed with during my first semester of 
college.  I'm currently taking classes in yoga and kickboxing (with plans to try hip hop and 
African dance in the future), and I recently had a photo of mine published in USC's literary 
magazine, Palaver.  And next year, in contrast to the small film company where I am now 
interning, my goal is to have a summer job at DreamWorks.  All of this is an effort to cram as 
much into my four years as possible.  And why not?  There is something to be gained from every 
new experience, whether I stick it out for the duration or not.  Maybe I'm flaky by nature, or 
maybe I'm just determined to get every bit of the well-rounded Liberal Arts education that my 
parents are shelling out big bucks for.  Does it really matter?  The point is this: don't ever 
let anyone tell you that there's something you can't do.  If you have a yen for something, try 
it.  You never know, you may discover some hidden talent that you didn't know you had.  Or you 
may not.  But hey, exploration and self-discovery is what the college experience is all about!