Skipping a Semester Saved Me

As a college student, I constantly have to think about my future and how I'm going to maximize my potential. In the beginning I was one hundred percent sure I was going to become a doctor, but the more science classes, the more I realized that I wasn't passionate about medicine at all.

Realistically, most people can't use passion as a measuring stick for their preferred profession, but I would like to avoid going into a career that I have contempt for. I had wanted to be a doctor for over a decade so after coming to this conclusion I felt completely lost. I also felt burnt out because I was taking classes full time and at least three summer classes freshman and sophomore year.

I began to have academic fatigue. I was losing hope and wondering if getting this degree was the right thing for me to do. Despite the societal pressure to have a degree, I know that there are other options outside of school so I wanted to see if there were other avenues I could take. I decided to work full time so I could have more of a mental space to ponder on this.

Doing this allowed me get an understanding of what I want out of a career. It's definitely not as glamorous as taking a gap year, but I realized that I hadn't had an academic break for almost a decade and a half. Not saying that elementary and middle school were anything too challenging, but only ever doing school and nothing else was getting kind of dull.

Once I did a couple weeks of a full time job I began to miss doing assignments and walking around on campus. I never thought I would say that, but here I am missing school. I began to use my spare time to research different fields I could go into and what type of working environment I was interested in. I started to contemplate law school, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to transition straight from undergrad to law.

Then I remembered my aunt mentioned being a paralegal to me a few months earlier. I looked into it and saw that my university had a pretty good program. For the first time in a while I finally felt like I had a plan. I decided that I would be a paralegal for a few years. This would be the best way for me to have an inside view of what it is like to be lawyer and see if law school would be a good first step for me.

I mostly wrote all this for myself, but I felt like this small journey was pretty important to me. I also acknowledge the privilege I have to be able to choose to take a semester off and be able to continue my education right afterwards. For those who are struggling with school, I would suggest that if you have the ability, take a break. As the child of Africans, I didn't know that was possible, but I'm glad I did.