They told me to try everything, so I did.

I pursued art. I became a lifeguard. I took up photography and started covering sports games. I’ve thought of trying psychology. I wrote for the school newspaper and became Editor-in-Chief. I’ve even considered nursing.

I’m constantly applauded for being so well-rounded — that being well-rounded will look good in college applications and help me figure out what I really love.

Yet here I am, with a variety of paths to choose from, but no clear direction.

As college quickly creeps up, I know I’m supposed to pick a major. Yet realizing that choosing a major is choosing a career track – and inherently a future – is incredibly overwhelming. How am I supposed to choose when every option feels only somewhat right? I like art, but I’m not sure I love it enough to risk the starving artist cliche. Journalism is fulfilling, but burnout is real, and the industry might be dying. I love photography, but I’m haunted by the fear that it isn’t a sustainable job. Medicine intrigues me, but I’m unsure whether I want to go to med school for so many years.

We’re told to try everything so we can discover our “one true path,” but no one talks about what happens when you end up loving everything too much. I’m stretched so thin across hobbies and interests that instead of getting clarity, I’ve ended up overwhelmed.

I envy those lucky enough to know what they have wanted from the start – the future scientists, aspiring engineers, and talented athletes – the kids who have known what they wanted to do since the ‘mature’ age of six.

The system convinced me that if I try everything, I’ll find the thing, but what no one told me is that sometimes trying everything just makes the whole process of actually choosing a future worse. Sometimes, trying everything doesn’t lead to clarity. Instead, it leaves you stuck. I’m stuck in the middle of too many doors, afraid that opening one means locking the others behind me.

I know people say, “You don’t have to have it all figured out right now,” and maybe they’re right. Maybe I’ll change my major three times, or find my ‘thing’ five years from now in some random class I didn’t expect to enjoy.

But today? All I want to do is be a 17-year-old girl, and It feels like I’m being asked to commit to a future I haven’t even had time to imagine.