Just Me 4.12.2006

My dreams have been shattered.
Not only is perfect vision required to become a commercial airline pilot, but it’s also required to be a dolphin trainer at Sea World.
Because my vision has been slowly declining ever since last year, I can never obtain either of my dream jobs.
Seriously, what child that has been to Sea World, or has even seen Flipper, doesn’t fantasize about being a trainer and swimming with the dolphins?
But, I guess swimming with dolphins isn’t exactly the reason I came to Georgetown. (Not putting down the occupation at all. In fact, I’m jealous.)
With Flipper’s best friend and adventurous sky navigator both checked off my list, one would think narrowing down on a field of study would be easier.
Hardly so.
In my opinion, a majority of the students, even the freshmen, that I have encountered here at Georgetown are incredibly pointed towards their futures.
Contrastingly, I feel like the lone student wandering aimlessly among dreadful required courses while juggling electives to determine what I am actually interested in.
My mission is not only to find an interest, but to find an interest that is also practical for my future.
This is easier said than done.
While it is easy to eliminate certain fields of study, such as medicine due to my incredibly weak stomach and lack of attraction to science, other disciplines pose unforeseen problems.
For example, I obviously enjoy writing. So, according to this interest, maybe I should pursue a major geared towards a writing career.
But the question is, do I really want to write for the rest of my life? Is English truly the major for me? Or did I just enjoy my first semester English class and will not enjoy the rest of them?
Going along with this language theme, I decided to take a linguistics course this semester.
Not only did this introductory course come relatively easy to me, but I actually enjoyed the class.
In fact, even though the class was at the ungodly hour of 9:15 a.m. for three mornings per week, I never willingly skipped class.
My professor always managed to keep my attention, even feeding us breakfast sometimes, the homework was fun (yes, fun), and the reading was actually interesting.
But, do I want to be a linguist when I graduate? Not particularly. I don’t even know what a linguist does.
Figures. The one field I have a legit interest in seems completely impractical.
The only advantage I have going for myself right now is the fact that I am able to apply to law school after I graduate with a degree in any major. Therefore, if law is written in my future, I have no worries (except for the grueling task of achieving adequate grades for acceptance.)
The time of year has arrived for me to select my courses for next year, and I am faced with a daunting dilemma.
There are three aspects one must consider when choosing courses: the course in general, the professor, and the time of the class.
As of right now, I have only two requirements left to fulfill for my general education: math and philosophy.
My plan is to put off philosophy as far as I possibly can, most likely taking it while abroad. As for math, I guess I must suffer through Calculus next semester and then hopefully ditch that TI-86 calculator for good. Accounting is not my future.
So, I’m left with four open classes and no requirements or major to build off of.
I know I will be continuing with Spanish, but otherwise, do I continue taking English and Linguistics classes to start working towards a major so I don’t fall behind? Or, do I explore other areas now to possibly change my interests completely?
Basically, there is no right answer to this question. Even at 18, I feel way too young to be thinking about what I want to do for the rest of my life.
So, until I’m forced to finally declare a major, I’ll continue my fantasies about dolphins and airplanes. Hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream.
Visalli, 18, of Wildwood Crest, is a freshman at Georgetown University.