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I would welcome specifics regarding age and the process you went through in figuring out "what you wanted to do when you grew up."
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I realized I hadn't answered that part.
Honestly, I always found people who were aimlessly determining their study and career path in college to be shiftless. I never felt I had the luxury to extend my schooling and just "search for a major".
In my estimation, a great deal of people "finding their calling" in college is laziness. I know that's blunt so if the shoe doesn't fit for anyone here uncertain then don't worry about it. I say it's laziness because I have seen others around me for years that do not apply themselves very hard to tasks - they party or do other things as much as study or work and they don't have solid goals.
When I grew up, I wanted to be a doctor. My mom is a nurse and I always told people I was going to be a doctor. In high school, however, I realized that I didn't like biology. It bored me while I loved Physics and Math. One day, some students came by our class and started talking about Nuclear Engineering and, from the time I was a Junior in high school, I resolved I was going to study Nuclear Engineering.
I applied for a Navy ROTC scholarship and was offered a 3 year scholarship. My sophomore year, I decided to change options and become a Marine. In part because I hated the time I had spent on ships (especially subs) but mostly because I was incredibly impressed with the Marine Officer there: Capt Schad (incidentally, he was friends with my current CG and my boss - small world).
This decision meant
a lot of work for me. People talk about Engineering degrees requiring, typically, 5 years. I always hold such ideas in disdain. I'm not puffing out my chest in pride but I got my degree in 4 years because that's the time I resolved that it takes to get a degree. I had several semesters of 21 credit hours with an additional 12-20 hours a week doing ROTC stuff. The reason I'm skeptical about the "impossibility" of getting a degree in 4 years is because of the huge load of ROTC stuff I did on top of my engineering degree.
But I had resolved to get an Engineering degree. Many others were doing the minimum. They had partied much their Freshman years and switched from hard science and engineering majors to management degrees. In fact, if it wasn't for people who switched their majors as Freshman, RPI would have a very small School of Management.
Some will protest at this point and say that it's a matter of skill or acumen. I cannot disagree more. The reason I know differently is that I saw Marines at the Naval Postgraduate School who got Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering who arrived with Political Science degrees. Because they were Marines and, literally, could not fail (because their families depended upon them not to) they were at school until 3 am some nights learning stuff that was fairly basic to me as an Engineering undergrad. After 2 years, they
knew Engineering well enough to write a unique thesis. It's all about goals and work ethic.
If undergrads applied themselves and worked hard then they can get any education they desire (within some limitations). The main limitation is effort in most cases - it's that simple. The idea that a person is "finding their major" is a lame excuse. My children will have 4 years to complete their undergraduate work and I expect them to have a goal for their education before they attend. I'm not wasting money on them "finding themselves" and they better work hard while they're in school. People who pay their own way through school are not nearly so shiftless as the vast array of people who attend school.
I also think that setting definite goals on what you're going to do is important. We always propose the goal and God disposes but when we're told to "...consider the ant you sluggard...", the ant is not wondering whether or not he should be working hard toward the goal of getting the food today. Certainly Providence puts a leaf in his way and he has to walk around it but what he needs to do is pretty well understood.
Thus, I've always been the type of person who decides what it is I'm going to do and then I work with full energy toward that end. I consider my goal on the basis of the talents God has gifted me with and I always understand that Providence may hinder the aim. But I think it is fundamentally shiftless to sit around and wait for opportunities to come around so I can figure out what it is I want to do with my life.
I'm actually closing a career right now in another 3 years and I'm already uncomfortable because I need to have a definite plan on what it is I want to do. It's either a second career with my own company or working as an independent contractor from home or going to Seminary (maybe a little bit of both). I actually feel a little bit shiftless because I haven't decided yet.
