I used to think that changing your mind meant you didn't know what you were doing.
From the age of five we're asked what we want to be when we grow up. We're constantly pressured to decide early, as if we must have it all figured out before we are even adults.
I'll never forget the first time I had an older student in a class with me. It shocked me at first: why would a retired man want to come back to college?
So, I asked him, and he told me, "I felt like I wasn't done learning and growing."
I didn't know how to respond, but it stuck with me. Aren't we told that's the age when we are supposed to be done?
Then I realized I was following the steps society had set for me: going to class, to work, to clubs, and adding anything I could to my resume. I was doing what I wanted, but in the way that society told me I had to do it. I lost my spark for the things I enjoyed.
Maybe that was the problem. I had spent so much time trying to become the person I thought I was supposed to be that I forgot I was allowed to become someone else.
I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to make permanent decisions about temporary versions of ourselves. We choose a major at 18 and wonder why we don't feel the same way at 20. But we're constantly changing.
Maybe changing your mind isn't a sign that you don't know what you're doing. Maybe it's a sign that you're paying attention.
There is something beautiful about being able to say, "I think I was wrong." It doesn't erase the person you were before; it shows that you were willing to listen to the person you were becoming.
Now, I think I understand that student a little better. Maybe we are never supposed to be done.
So, change your mind. If the life you planned no longer feels like the life you want, you don't have to be ashamed of that. You can choose again.