Fresh Talk: Why people need to stop asking what I plan to do with my college major.

Sooner or later, every college student will get the dreaded question: “What do you plan on doing with your major?”

This question can cause panic.

Students today — college, high school, even younger — are pressured to decide their life paths at a way too early an age. We are pressured into tailoring our education for a sole job or outcome and are responsible for seeing that all the roads ahead are paved.

Originally, I planned to major in religion. I was fully convinced that God was calling me to be a man of the cloth. So, what better way to absorb all possible knowledge than to study the nature of the divine? I planned to earn my B.A. in religion, utilize that degree to gain admission to seminary, earn a master’s of divinity after three years of expensive theological schooling, and eventually find a congregation in the Episcopal Church.

Signed, sealed, delivered. No foreseeable bumps.

Alas, I received mostly pessimistic feedback for a clergy route — no guarantees of a full-time job, and a small salary coupled with massive debt, among other things — I was left in a rut. Suddenly, I was forced to confront all of these confounding variables that were raining down on me. I eventually realized that I was not ready, at least not at this point in my life, to commit to such shaky ground in this post-Christian era. Religion was a hobby of mine, but I came to learn that I wasn’t 100 percent sold on studying it in college. My original decision to explore it formally was solely to achieve a clergy career, which was not the goal anymore.

Social pressures played a part, too. Not only did I have a major I wasn’t fully passionate about, but I had a major with questionable utility. Religion, coupled with countless other majors in the humanities or dramatic arts, often receive a scowl, or a “You really think you’ll be able to get a job with that degree?” response.

Those reactions also raise the subtler question of whether college is worth it in general.

I realize that those who ask “What do you want to do with that major?” almost always have good intentions. But the student might not be 100 percent passionate. Maybe they have a whole different path in mind, but they don’t feel comfortable explaining it, for fear of being shot down. Perhaps they are only majoring in a given field to appease a family member, or live up to preconceived expectations, precluding their own dreams and desires in the process. Or, maybe they feel pressure to conform to society’s outlook on a cookie-cutter post-secondary education.

I love what I’m studying currently: American studies and French, two things I have been passionate about from the get-go. But, please. Don’t ask me what I’m going to do with this degree. It’s an intrusive question. Life changes every single day. Maybe I’ll go to graduate school and become a historian, the next Doris Kearns Goodwin. Maybe I’ll pursue my school’s master of arts in teaching program and become a teacher in the public school system. Maybe I’ll become the next curator of the National Museum of American History or teach English to French students in Tahiti.

But I am not sure yet. I don’t know what my career will be. I thought I did, for the longest time, but I realized that I need some experience with life before settling on an ironclad decision.

So now, when someone asks what I plan to do with my degree, I say, “I don’t know yet.” And for now, that suits me just fine.

Maxwell Toth is a 2018 graduate of Manchester High School. He is currently a rising sophomore at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

The Courant invites writers younger than 30 to write essays of 650 words or fewer containing strong views. Please email your submission to freshtalk@courant.com, with your full name, hometown, daytime phone number, age and occupation (or your school’s name and your level in school).