Making smart choices for my future

As I rapidly approach the end of my teenage years, I find myself wondering more and more about my future. Who will I be? Where will I be? What will I be doing?

The future, quite frankly, is a terrifying thing to think about. But I’ve been thinking about it more and more lately with a varying degree of anxiety, and I have come to one very broad conclusion: I have to make it happen.

Every choice I make has a consequence and these consequences are relative to the situation at hand. If I have a 9:30 a.m. class and I go to sleep at 1:00 a.m., the consequence is that I will be exhausted in the morning. If I have a project or assignment due on Friday night, but I submit it on Thursday morning, the consequence is that I can enjoy some free time instead of stressing about an 11:59 p.m. Blackboard deadline.

These choices and these consequences are fairly small-scale. They concern my actions on a weekly basis, and I can foresee the immediate impact they will have on my life.

But what about those bigger choices that will affect my future? The choices that will have consequences farther in the future than I can imagine?

These are choices that every college student has to make. What clubs should I get involved in? What major should I declare? What internship should I apply for? Should I apply for graduate school?

Anxiety-inducing, isn’t it?

Well here’s the thing: It should be.

If you’re making an important decision, you should be at least a little nervous about it. That means you really care about the consequences. That anxiety, however, shouldn’t prevent you from making those decisions. When fear of the future causes you to stop living in the present, that’s when something is wrong.

I love being involved on campus and the list of things I participate in seems to get longer with every passing semester. I came to Iona thinking I was going to be a Computer Science major before I officially declared Mass Communication, but then I fell into a dual-degree track for Marketing. Internships still terrify me, but as I approach my junior year, I am taking strides to talk with professors and advisors about what my prospects might be. And I’ve never really seen myself as a graduate school student, and I don’t feel that I will need a master’s degree when I enter the workforce.

The time I spent making those choices is a story that is too long to tell. But it’s that story that colors the choices I make now for my future. It is the confidence in myself that has made me optimistic in my path of life. I have made good decisions, I have made mistakes and I have made choices where the consequences have yet to be seen.

The best thing I can do is to make a choice. Because if no action is taken, nothing new will happen. The future I want will only happen if I’m willing to dive in head first and make it happen.

I think it was Marty McFly that said it best: “Whoa. This is heavy.”

Thinking about the future is one of the heaviest things that everyone has to deal with. But I think Doc Brown said it even better, because once we start going fast enough, “You’re gonna see some serious [stuff].”

To contact The Ionian’s Alison Robles, email her at [email protected].