In fact, it is best if you don't think at all! If, on a whim, you decide to study marine biology, go declare it right away. It's okay if you have never been all that interested in marine life previously, and have a severe dolphin allergy--you'll figure those parts out later. It is essential you declare your newfound interest as a major immediately.
2. Make sure you make it known how passionate you are about your new discipline.
Tell your academic advisor that you have discovered your calling, and it is marine biology. Expound on the virtues of your new vocation, and explain how you have been hiding your inner marine biologist your whole life. Once you have declared the major, make sure to tell everyone you meet that you are a future marine biologist. Call up your parents and tell them you have found your direction in life. Do not hold back the joyous news from anyone.
3. Enthusiastically join organizations dedicated to your major.
It is essential that along with joining these organizations, you give up any previous ones you were a member of. That was your old life--your present and future is the beautiful world of marine biology. If you are feeling highly motivated, you can ditch friends you knew from your old clubs, and embrace the people in the new ones. You don't really want to be hanging around people who just aren't going to the same place as you anyway.
4. Plan the minutiae of the rest of your life around major.
There is absolutely no chance life will not go the way you want it to, so make sure you get the details down now. A new major is a great chance to structure your whole life around your, of course, inevitable career. Enjoy life with your fellow marine biologist spouse, two children, and dog on the houseboat on the coast of Florida. I'm sure you will find the manatees very interesting, and you will be able to devote the rest of your life to studying them.
5. Repeat. Several Times.
I envy the people who have known since they were three where they are going, and where they want to be. I change my mind daily. I have panic attacks that I am, in fact, going nowhere. That I will, in fact, be doomed to a box by the river.
I can't believe, however, that the solution is to stop exploring new paths. The most interesting people in life are the ones that have been everywhere and tried everything. They are the people that have studied marine biology, and worked as an archaeologist in Egyptian tombs. Or the people that dropped everything and moved to a new city to start again, or to look for something they could not find where they were. Changing paths isn't bad--but let's just try to end up somewhere other than that box by the side of the river.
But as my best friend once said--even in that situation, you're at least living by a river.
Smile and Breathe! xxx
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