Finding Your Passion and Changing Your Mind
This week, our seniors presented the results of their senior thesis projects to classmates, friends, family, teachers, and mentors. The breadth of topics was as stunning as the depth of the exploration. I heard about correlations between green spaces in Boston, race, and socioeconomics; irreducible polynomials over finite fields; depictions of witches in literature from Medea to the present; Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata; stem cells and transplantable heart tissue; quality of life outcomes in adolescent female dancers; and the impact of certain pollutants on coral native to New England. My only regret is that I could not attend more!
I love that the BUA academic experience culminates with students identifying areas of passion and diving deep; they find agency and purpose in applying what they have learned. And for some of them, the topic they explore will spark something bigger: a college major, a dissertation topic; a career. I worry, though, that students at this age might think that they are somehow “stuck” with the passion they identify at 17 or 18 years-old and feel pressure to choose a path for the rest of their lives. Nothing is further from the truth. I have talked to dozens of graduates who, in their early 30s are already in their second careers. I am on my third – happily so! The freedom to switch gears in a career is one of the greatest gifts of an education like the one students receive at BUA – a freedom that many people do not have. Some of the happiest people I know found something interesting and meaningful to do early in their careers. They gave it their full energy. Then, when the time was right, they took a chance by stepping off the track to try something new. An education like this means that doors are seldom truly closed and new one are within reach.