I'm Lost

I don't know what I'm going to do. I’m 21 years old and I've been studying to get into a Pharmacy school for the past three years. I've been taking Biology, Chemistry, and math courses up the wazzu with a few other basic general education courses in the mix. The fall semester last year I did not do too well in some of my courses, so I decided to take it easy for a semester and try again this fall and hopefully improve my grades to get back on track. I would be year behind but I would ok to apply for schools. Well this semester is about to come to an end and here I am in the same situation I was in last year. My grades are not competitive enough for the schools and I actually ended up doing worse this year than last. Worst of all, I no longer like doing anything I am doing in school. There is no drive; there is no 'want' to do it. I don't enjoy any of the classes, and it all just seems so arduous and pointless, I just don’t want to do it anymore. I think my main problem was that I chose that major because I knew I would make a good deal of money in that profession. I fooled myself into thinking that is what I would like to do, where now I’m just miserable.

I have to decide what I am going to do for the rest of my life. I want to find something that is going to make me happy. I just don’t know what that is. I look at my hobbies, and interests and I’m more a jack of all trades type person. There are a lot of things I’m familiar with and know the basics of, but there isn’t anything that I’m really good at, or really like that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I have a bunch of biology and chemistry credits built up but I want to get any from anything that deals with science. I was thinking something in business, like accounting, or even computers. I just don’t know where in computers I would want to work. I’m not terrible at math, but I’m not great at it either. I really don’t want to program. If I could set up networks and hardware that would be great, but I just don’t know.

*sigh* I’m just lost, up thinking till all hours of the night… Thought organizing my thoughts here would help but I’m just as confused as I was when I started.

 

let me ask you this. IF you DIDN'T have to work at all. What would you do to pass the time. ?

 

I'd be sitting on a boat in Northern Wisconsin pulling muskie out of the water. :-D

 

Ok. I'd like to ask if you ever thought about becoming a teacher?

 

Your disillusionment sounds a bit like my own state of mind in college.

If you're the entrepreneurial type, you can try stuff out part time and see what you take a liking to. I turned out hating software (my major was computer science) and instead started a virus removal business (virusremovalbusiness.com) part time, and it helps me get by while I pursue my other interests.

Considering you're posting here, you're probably decent with computers. I started this site with the aim of helping others get into the same business. Good luck.

 

dont stress it bro. you said yourself that you like computers. take some networking classes. work in the field for a while. if you dont like it, youll always have the background. no good education or experience will prevent you from moving on to something completely different. im 22, graduated college about a year ago, currently a network admin and im sitting here typing this still deciding if its what i want to do. i like helping people and i still think about other professions that involve helping others. i was thinking about being a cop for a while, still am thinking about it and to be quite honest, its probably what ill end up doing in 8 or 5 years. but as long as you keep doing something in life, youll never have to sit there stressed about what you want to do. we're still young dude, its not like we're 43 and hate our jobs. we still have options.

 

Age has nothing to do with it. Earlier this year, the company I worked for closed and went overseas. I decided to go back to school. I am currently enrolled in a 2 year help desk technician program. When I am done, I want to work for someone for a while, gaining experience, but ultimately want to start my own business, doing computer tech, building web pages, graphic design, all sorts of things. I currently do make personalized cards,calendars, etc

Oh, and, by the way, I am 47 now.

Good luck to you Overcooked. No matter what you decide to do, education is always good.

 

I am not sure if this would interest you Overcooked, but here is a link to some assessments you can take on your skills and interests. You never know, you might find something there you hadn't thought of.
http://www.iseek.org/sv/10210.jsp
I am sure there are many others, too. This is just one site I had to use for one of my classes.

 

you completely missed my point. i meant he still has a lot of time to figure out what exactly he wants to do with his life. at 40, a person should have an idea. you obviously do.

big ups to a fellow Minnesotan though. Do you live anywhere near NE minneapolis?

 

No, I am in central Minnesota. Near Alexandria.
But, you missed my point of the fact that I thought I was happy with my job, at my age, until I was forced to seek something else. Now, I feel it was a really good thing this happened, because I can do what I really want to do.

 

Understandable. Well hey, wish you the best for your new job and business. hope everything works out well for you

 

I don't usually write unless I have to. Although, when I do have to write I often get good grades and high marks on my papers and assignments. It's not something I can see myself doing all the time though.

I'd love to take up charter fishing but I would never leave the area I'm living in. All my family is here and unfortunately, not to much fishing goes on around here.

The thought occurred to me. I just don't know what level I'd like to teach at and what I would teach. I would say English is out, and no math or science. Maybe history, I have a solid interest in it, but not enough that I think I might be happy doing that the rest of my life.

I'm okay with computers. I can do more than most people at least but I'm far from knowledgeable in the area. It's an area that I've always had interest in but I've had several IT people tell me to stay out because of job security. Something like computer and information systems manager would be a possible choice for me.

My main objective, if you would call it that, when deciding what I wanted to do, was that I had to help people in some way or form. That's why I thought medical would be the way to go, but I can't handle the coursework and I do not enjoy a single part of the subject matter. Something in computers, or something where I work with computers seems to be the way I'm leaning. I'm going to see if I can take a variety of classes this upcoming semester to dabble in a few different areas and see if something sparks my interest.

Never to late to do what you really want to do. Thanks for your best wishes!

My University offers online skill assessment tests and I've taken a few of them. It matched my personality and skills to different jobs, and what do you know, I get matched to medical careers. :confused There were a few other things mixed in there, but nothing that sparked my interest. Thank you for that link, I'll check that one out too.

I haven't given up hope yet, just trying to figure it all out and find something that I can do. I've talked to my parents and they were really pushing the Pharmacy thing. They've struggled financially all their lives and they wanted to make sure I choose a career that is going to be stable so i could live a less stressful life than they did. However, that isn't working out and here I am. My friends said they could see me teaching but I'm not too sure about it. I don't know what I would teach, and at which level. I'm going to try a few things and if I don't like it, I'll try something else. I figure I'll eventually settle on something that makes me happy.

Diet stuff is a little rough. I haven't lost anymore weight but I haven't gained any either. I'm going to try to hit the gym every day starting next week since school will be over. I'll do that and I should have lost half my goal weight by the end of the year. Not exactly what I wanted, but A nice achievement I think. :-D

Thanks everyone!

 

So set up your own fishing guide business

 

I'm not one to have any idea what to do with my own life, much less others, but being that some of my classes have been paralleling yours, you could always look me up if you are having trouble. I live in the tutoring center these days, but its allowed me to turn my grade slump into something manageable.

Funny that being a teacher was mentioned, my family is still trying to convince me to teach, instead of pursuing chemical engineering.

 

I think a direction change will suit me. I'm not much of a talker, and prefer to keep to myself mostly. I'm not very sociable. I have a few good friends and not many acquaintances, so that part had me a bit worried about teaching.

I hear ya about eating too much of the wrong stuff. I'm starving for money and unfortunately the healthy food is of the expensive variety. I'm eating less and eating healthier because of the cost of it all. :-D

 

At the very least our Chemistry classes parallel each other. I'll definitely keep you in mind if I run into any trouble. My Chemistry final is Tuesday though, so I'm pretty much at the end of my leash. At this point I'm trying to salvage what ever is left of my GPA before I switch over to a new major.

 

Sounds like a lot of the same problems I've had, but now I'm 25, married, and struggling to keep from going further in debt.

 

I spent a good three hours yesterday talking with advisers from different departments and I've decided on a new major. I'm going to go into Computer Information Technology. I can get a bachelors degree and a minor in business. If my grades are high enough I want to get into the MBA program here with a concentration in Information Technology. That should set me up nicely to work in a wide variety of fields and keep my options open. The minor might help me find something that interests me as well so i can adjust my concentration to one side or the other as I go on. It is very flexible.

I finally feel happy again about what I'm going to do with my life. Today is the last day for finals and then I'll be rid of all the biology and chemistry. A month of work and then I start my new major. Lucky me I took a bunch of general education courses beyond what I was supposed to take while going though my Pharmacy classes. I have a good amount of credit hours built up that can transfer, but unfortunately a lot of the time and money put into the Biology and Chemistry was wasted.

*side note/rant*

I hate when people don't know what 'Quiet Study Area' means. You're not supposed to come in here with five of your friends to chit chat! I need silence to study!

 

Sounds like you made a good choice!