Thread: Cyclical panic attacks about future.

I'm in my senior year of college, and I've been freaking out once a week about what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I'm dual majoring in English and journalism, though I kind of abandoned journalism because I rarely ever write (and you need a lot of writing samples to get any sort of job). I have a lot of experience in copy editing, though, and I worked with police PIOs at an internship two summers ago. I'm taking the LSAT in October (even though I'm not sure if I want to go to law school yet), and I'm probably going to register for the GRE, too, just in case.

Frankly, I have no idea what to do after graduation. My dream job would be to go into publishing, but my fear of failure looms above me. It's such a competitive field, and almost all of my journalism friends have similar aspirations. I'm still thinking about copyright law, and I'm still considering grad school, thought that would probably be for English.

I'm pretty much just at a loss right now, and I feel like I have to decide immediately since applications for grad/law school are rapidly approaching. Have you ever been this lost about what to do with your life? Did you just go with the flow and end up somewhere? Did it take you a while to decide? I might take a year off, just to really think about what it is I want to do. My biggest fear would be jumping into law school and then realizing that I hate it. Then I'll be in debt and stuck in the industry, and that doesn't sound like any fun. (Money is another factor in all of this; I have very little of it.)

This is more of a rambling post because this is what's been on my mind, plaguing me and keeping me from doing my schoolwork by deadline. I'm so concerned with my future that I'm neglecting the present!

I"m there a lot of the time. I've never had panic attacks, but I've gotten extremely depressed, and stayed in bed all day before. Since I'm only a sophomore, I can just go with flow and follow the schedule, but my degree is not exactly the most useful in finding a job, so it's still pretty scary. Especially now that both my parents are reitired, and I'e never had a job.

I've had a few life crisis moments where I've been overwhelmed with the future, thinking, "What the hell am I going to do with my life?" Some people seem to know from a very young age what they'll do, but not me. The sheer gravity of deciding on a career has never been something I took lightly. I've had to wrestle with my ambitions. It seems like some people just fall into their careers without thinking too much about it, but I read something once that the average person changes careers four times.

Saying how you neglect the present for the future (which I do, afraid the coming commitments are too big that I don't even try) reminds me of a true story I read. There was this one guy who was a homeless alcoholic. He was raised in an abusive environment, developed alcohol addiction in his teens, was kicked out of home, and lived on the streets. He went on to gradually break his addiction, get a job, get off the streets, rise up the ranks of his job, become a millionaire, and win the Order of Canada for charity work. True story, and in the interview I read of the guy, he said the way he did it was always focusing on "the day". He wouldn't brood over the future, just focus on the day and what he had to get done right now. And that was his big piece of advice.

I know how you feel. I don't know if you guys remember that scene in Men in Black where the guy sat on the bench all night deliberating, but I've had a few sessions like that. Or drawn out months like that. Now I got a pretty good plan.

All of you need to get things into perspective. The world is doomed, thanks to mankind’s interference. So all your worrying is for nothing. You can major in this and minor in that and we’re still going to go down the toilet.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

All of you need to get things into perspective. The world is doomed, thanks to mankind’s interference. So all your worrying is for nothing. You can major in this and minor in that and we’re still going to go down the toilet.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

All of you need to get things into perspective. The world is doomed, thanks to mankind’s interference. So all your worrying is for nothing. You can major in this and minor in that and we’re still going to go down the toilet.

Screw mankind, I think you'll find most people are more worried about if they're going down the toilet. I imagine we'll last long enough for this generation of college students to fail or succeed individually.

Originally Posted by Ilasir Maroa

Screw mankind, I think you'll find most people are more worried about if they're going down the toilet. I imagine we'll last long enough for this generation of college students to fail or succeed individually.

Toilet cleaners go down the toilet all the time!

Yes. Once I had fulfilled my dream of becoming intimately acquainted with evangeline lilly and matthew fox at the same time, I was left floating around in a daze d"What could I possibly do with the rest of my life?"

If you get a few journalism internships then you'll have articles to show for a real job in journalism. If you work hard at it you can make it.

Also there's jobs in scriptwriting (staff writer) that you can intern with in order to have samples to show to employers. Then you could get the chance to maybe to write for TV series'.

Don't give up hope and never settle for less. Most people start at the bottom with no experience or credits.

P.S-- I heard from many sources, including lawyers themselves, that you really need to love law in order to be happy in your profession. Another thing is that just because you're a lawyer doesn't mean you're going to make big money. You also have to think will you be happy doing research, going through ancient law books and doing out of court duties (as very few cases ever get to court) for the rest of your life. Just some thoughts.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

Alanmt, I'd have to meet James Ford in order to totally lose control of my life. I think it'd be worth it, though.

I wonder if it's true that for a lot of people, things just fall into place. I'm sure you have to have an idea, some sort of aim. But I've found it pointless to have detailed plans for the future -- they almost never end up happening. All of my freak outs have been because I feel like if I decide not to go to law school, I'll end up jobless. I guess that comes from being told constantly that every industry I'm interested in -- journalism, publishing, etc. -- are going down the drain. It gets pretty tiresome. I'm looking into publishing/communications internships, and I think I'm going to take the GRE. I'm pretty much just covering all of my bases so I can wait until the very last second to make a decision.

Should be interesting.