When we were all children, we were told not to judge a book by its cover. We were told by teachers, librarians, and parents, “Even if you don’t like the book you’re reading, stick it out until you’re halfway through. It may just have a slow beginning. You can’t possibly know if you’ll like the book until you’re half way through, you don’t even know what it’s about yet.” However, those same adults seem to change their mind the day you graduate from your junior year of high school.

The day you graduate your junior year you will hear a multitude of questions on a daily basis. “Are you going to college?” “Where are you going to go to college?” “What do you want to major in?” “What are you going to do with your life?” I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to write, “I DON’T KNOW” in big black letters on my forehead and point to it every time I’m asked a question.

I think we should just take a breath and relax. We’ve got time. After all, the average lifespan in the United States is 78.2 years, which means at 18 we are only 23% through our life. How are we supposed to know what we want to do yet? If we can’t know where a book is going until 50% of the way through, life shouldn’t be any different.

Most of us seniors are seventeen. Most of us have hardly left the state and have always attended small-town Delphi high. We’ve never been on our own. The jobs we’ve worked are not often career building opportunities. We’re still raising our hands to ask to get a Kleenex but tomorrow we are supposed to know every detail about our lives. Senioritis is diminishing because we’re too stressed to slack off. It’s time we stop letting it stress us out.

All across the United States, 50%-70% of all college students change their major at least once. On average, a college student changes his or her major three times. It is completely normal and acceptable to enroll in college undecided or in one major and wait a few years, take a few classes, and then decide. Most of the freshmen classes are prerequisites and common for all majors, anyway.

Everyone knows it is extremely common for Americans to change careers right after they graduate. They’re seeing what options are out there and what they like best. What people don’t know is that the average American changes careers or their pathway in a career seven times in his or her life. There’s no reason to believe that we have to decide our major and career right now. Go to school, get the degree, explore your options, and then pick what fits you. The USA Today states that 38% of the 17.6 million undergraduates in the United States were between the ages of 25 and 69. If you choose a major or choose not to attend college, you can change your mind later in life and go back to school.

As a senior in high school, you’re not even a quarter through your life. I’ve always thought that we spend too much of our life in preparation. We spend the best years of our life in middle school and high school just to get into college just to make enough money to retire in 40 years. And then we die. It is good to be prepared for the future, but we are the generation to make the future stop completely dictating our present. A British Sociologist calculated how much of one’s life is spent working, assuming they retired at 65 and worked full time. It was determined that people spend over 30% of their life working. You will spend 30% of your future working and being an adult so why spend your teen years doing it, too? Take your time. Travel. Make friends. Fall in love. Dabble in all of your interests. Seek knowledge just for the sake of learning. If you already think you have an idea for your future career, pursue it. We’re not too old to chase our dreams and we’re too young to trade our dreams for a pay raise. However, if you don’t know what you want to do yet, don’t let it be a cause for stress and anxiety. You’re not even half way through the novel yet.