Hi friends! Are you a junior or senior in high school struggling to answer the question you get asked ten times a day, “What are you doing for the rest of your life?” If so, then welcome! 

The first thing I want to tell you is: you do NOT need to know what you want to do yet. Tell your parents’ friends (who met you when you were little and have no idea who they are) that you don’t know, and don’t be ashamed of it! 

You don’t need to know when you arrive at the University of Iowa either. If any of you have been in the admission office, there’s a wall filled with SO MANY brochures stating many different majors. 

It’s crazy. There are so many options. Iowa is the place to figure out your future.

Fun fact, when one of my friends first arrived at Iowa, she didn’t have a major picked out. Through her gen ed English class (gen eds are classes you can take that are required in order to graduate. They’re somewhat like high school classes), and the political science class that she took just because she enjoys that subject, she was able to realize that she wanted to major in Political Science. 

During my junior year of high school, I had no idea what my future would hold. I thought about developmental psychology, marine biology, theater, and even nursing (pushed by my parents haha). 

That same year, my friend and I were bored and decided to be goofy and make a youtube channel where we can show the world how crazy we are. My friend was busier than I was, so I ended up doing all the editing and uploading. Looking back, I’m so glad she was busy. I fell in love with editing. So I took a video production class my senior year and I fell deeper in love with editing and it sparked my interest in operating a camera, interviewing others, and creating a world within a frame. 

During my senior year, I got an email from the University of Iowa sharing an invitation to an event that the J-School (Journalism school) was held at Two Rivers Marketing in Des Moines. I showed my mom she said “why not,” so I signed up. The speakers at the event spoke about all the future jobs I could get. It was crazy how there were so many careers that could come out of one major. The Daily Iowan students newspaper was mentioned and I was in awe with the thought of working there and taking photos or reporting. I wanted to do it all. That night,  I decided to attend the University of Iowa.. and major in Journalism and Mass Communication.

But wait, it doesn’t stop there lol. 

Throughout all of my senior year, my brother (who is a cinema major) was working on his first short film. Small town Iowa did not have enough people who were willing to stay up until 4:00am to help him shoot, do sound, or be actors, so somehow I always ended up on set doing anything he needed help with. (It was always very fun because my brother sometimes had to be an actor so I could operate the main camera :)) As the end of my senior year got closer, I realized that I also really really enjoyed filmmaking. A lot. The idea of storytelling while operating a camera while working with actors was so interesting to me. I never would have thought I would be studying the same thing as my brother, but there I was deciding to pick up Cinema as my second major. 

The point I’m trying to get across is that you don’t need to know what you want to do, so for now, do what you enjoy. My friend enjoys political science, and I enjoy having a camera in my hand- and now those are our majors. So, take those gen eds that you enjoy, get involved in extra organizations, and stress less about the idea that you need to know what you want to do for the rest of your life in high school. :)