For many students, the prospects of applying to university or college is an exciting one. Ideally, they enter their grade 12 year with a short list of schools that represent their best fit; comprised of programs of interest, ideal size, location, proximity to home, and other factors that are important to them. Some students have a clear vision of where they want to go and how they are going to get there while others are comfortable with applying to a number of schools and using the rest of the year to find their ideal institution. It is in the spring when I start to see the uncertainty start to creep in for my students. And every year, the affliction of indecision affects more and more students. With an acceptance deadline looming, their indecision becomes magnified and at the heart of their hesitation is fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of having to follow a different path than the one they had imagined in their heads. Fear of an unclear future. The irony of this fear is that no one really knows what the future will hold. Technology is changing the nature of work and communication in such a rapid way that it is difficult to predict what the world will look like 5 years from now, let alone 20.
Students and families believe more and more that avoiding the liberal arts and moving into specialized fields like STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) will ensure a certain future. However, the statistics coming out from higher education analysts is that it is quite the opposite. Overall, one third of students are changing majors during their undergraduate years, and one in ten is changing more than once. Compare that to approximately half of students starting in STEM related fields who are changing into the more broad-spectrum areas such as humanities and social sciences. While there are many reasons for this, the takeaway must be that an overlooked skill that students must acquire is the ability to pivot. They must become comfortable with being uncomfortable. The only way to do this is to be well-educated in the options available to them; to understand how to change majors if need be, to understand how to transfer whichever skills they attain into any profession, and to understand how to acquire more information and assistance when they need it. The old saying "knowledge is power" is never more relevant than in these cases. The only way to ease the anxiety of indecision is to be comfortable with pivoting in life.
I often play a game with students in this position called "If This, Then That" where we go through every scenario they imagine and figure out how to deal with it if it comes to fruition.
If you know of anyone who needs this sort of help, contact us at info@guidingyourfuture.com.
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