Illini Bluffs - Plotting Your Trajectory and Choosing Your Major

We’ve come through infancy, toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Each and every one of us is made up of uniquely individual characteristics and experiences, which give shape to who we are, and hopefully each of us will plot a path forward that best aligns with our interests, aptitudes, and capabilities. The post-secondary transition is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ program. There are those who will serve our Nation by enlisting in the military. There are those who will join a family business or a family farm right out of high school. There are those who will head-off to a trade school and enter the world of work soon after, while some will move directly into shift-work, freelance work, or start their own business. But the majority of high school seniors will be heading to college after they complete high school. In rural America, the statistics, nationwide, are about 68%, with nearly 45% choosing a 4-year college or university and about 23% choosing to attend a community college, usually one within 30 miles of their home. There isn’t a bad option among these post-secondary intentions. There is only bad fit, which also leaves us with ‘good’ fit. And the idea that we have this continuum, from bad fit to good fit, suggests that with a little thought and some exploratory effort, we can reasonably expect to land in what others have called the Goldilocks zone. The ‘just right’ zone. Those who’ve been with me for awhile on our podcast will recall that, while I am a huge advocate for post-secondary education now, there was a time in my life when it was not very important to me at all. So there is also a timing piece to this puzzle. To all things, their season. At 18, I was deeply engrossed in building my own business — which I did — but by 45, college became very, very important to me, and so I made it happen. 

Today, I’d like to talk about finding our dominant path, what colleges and universities refer to as declaring your major. But finding your dominant path isn’t JUST about college; you can apply many of these ideas to a non-college trajectory as well. The work of author and researcher, Simon Sinek in his ‘Start with Why’ book series, has been called among the most important guidance a person can seek. Because finding fit in all your life paths is so crucial to finding happiness and fulfillment, Sinek helps his readers identify their most authentic drivers and, from there, helps them better understand how their engagements can fulfill their most genuine needs and desires, professionally, personally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. It’s a fairly deep topic, let’s dive in.