Everyone college student hates when their family asks questions about their future.

Or maybe thats just me.

It's a tiring cycle. I think I can speak for most when I say we dread family functions because you are always met with the ongoing list of questions. "So what do you want to do?" or "What job are you going to get after you graduate?" or anything along those lines. It got exhausting, especially when I couldn't give them a clear answer. I could tell them my major and minor, but there wasn't a specific job I could name.

It wasn't that I didn't have a plan, I have known that I wanted to work in ocean conservation since my freshman year of high school.

Having to explain over and over again to curious aunts and uncles that I don't have a job in mind got concerning. I am at UNCW, taking all of this time studying environmental and marine sciences, but I can't seem to place what the next step is.

It made me wonder what I was even doing here.

I know that I want a career working to conserve the ocean, whether it is as a whole or specializing in a specific aspect of it, like sharks or plastic pollution, because that is the only thing I see myself doing, and frankly want to do. I recognize the issues that our oceans face, and I can't just sit idle while there are big problems to be addressed. The unfortunate thing is that realizing what you want to do is only half the battle, you have to find a way to actually do it.

The numerous conversations that I had with my family helped me though, because it made me realize that I actually did know the answer. And it was that I didn't have one.

Being able to explain to people over and over again what I am studying, what I am passionate about, and why I want to go into the field showed me that although I might not have the name for the job, I have a direction and the opportunity to work in a bunch of different places, which is fine by me.