Lost in (at?) college

[stacheldraht]

Ok, first of all, sorry for my English. Not my native language and yeah, you know.
So, I'm at the first year of Psychology in one of the best uni's of my country. It took me one year of giving up on everything and studying the whole day to get where I am. I used to sleep six hours per day and didn't even have time to eat in a table some days. It was so hard I almost break down. But I did the test, I got a good grade and now I'm living by myself in another city just to study. The problem is: I don't know if I want to study Psychology. I only chose it because my time was ending and I had to choose something. But now, some days, I can't barely bare it. I mean, I really like what I'm learning, I like the place, I like the people and I like living alone. But there is something that is just wrong in all of this. I don't know what it is, yet. Sometimes in the middle of the class my mind just float away and I think about how I'm only there because I'm living in na automatic mode and how I don't want to be a psychologist. Yet, I jsut don't know what I want to be. I don't even know what I am! I mean, I'm seventeen. I shouldn't have to think about things like that when I'm so Young. But then I just have to and I get so sad. Right now, I'm not even sad! I don't feel a thing. I'm numb and I can't take this anymore. I know I want to study Antropology and Criminology but the first one won't get me Jobs and the last one is in Portugal, and I don't have Money to study there. What should I do? I'm tired and I just want to give up on everything.

[PSY]

Hello, and welcome to TeenHelp! =) I'm sorry you didn't receive a response sooner.

I was also a psychology major, and unlike many people, I DID know what I wanted to do. Well, sort of. I knew I wanted to help people, but I didn't know how advanced of a degree I wanted to obtain (BA/BS vs. MA/MS vs. PhD/PsyD), I didn't know what kind of population I wanted to work with, and I didn't know what kind of setting I wanted to work in. Basically, even after figuring out my major, I still had to figure out my CAREER.

Now that I'm in my mid-20s, I understand that developing your career is an ongoing process. Yes, there's a lot of pressure to figure out your degree at a young age, but your degree doesn't have to determine what you'll do for the rest of your life! What I would encourage you to do is seek out learning opportunities, whether they're in the form of internships, volunteer opportunities, jobs, research positions, or something else. If you think you might like something, then try it... and if/when you decide you don't like it, you can cross it off your list and try something else. Volunteering with TeenHelp helped me discover that I want to work with teens, and that I probably want to do it within a non-profit agency. That's one volunteering opportunity I pursued while in college, and other volunteering opportunities taught me other valuable lessons as well (e.g., that I don't want to do research, so a PhD/PsyD route wouldn't be right for me).

Since you're interested in anthropology and criminology, you might want to seek out people with those majors who have graduated and obtained jobs. Ask if they'd be willing to meet with you one-on-one so you can learn more about how they got to where they are today! There are definitely people with those majors who have paying jobs, and you may not have to go all the way to Portugal to gain valuable experience within the field of criminology (you may be able to take classes outside of your major and find a position that will lead to more job offers further down the road - many people "break into" fields outside of their majors, and while it may be difficult, it's certainly not impossible!).