Choose Your Recipe

Those of you who have baked a cake can testify to what I am about to say. It is not easy. At the beginning, you choose a recipe. You hope that in the end, your cake will turn out to be the final product the recipe entails. The recipe will come with a list of ingredients and instructions. If you follow these instructions properly, ideally you should end up with the cake you wanted. Anyone who has baked anything will tell you that following a recipe does not by any means guarantee the final product you wanted. 

After you pick out a recipe and gather your ingredients, you may be discouraged to see that what you have does not at all resemble anything like a cake. You're likely to be faced with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients that you would never think go into that tasty bake. While the beginning may look shaky, you go ahead with the directions of the recipe. You may find yourself saying, “Well here goes nothing”. Do not worry, this is how most start their baking journey. After the first few steps of the recipe, you may find encouragement in a product that shows potential to be that final delicious cake you are hoping for. Some at this stage in the baking process may have that, “Oh crap, I screwed up!” moment. No matter what your reaction is at this stage, what you have done to this point in the baking process is crucial to whether your cake will turn out successful. 

Once your ingredients have been mixed together, your cake batter is ready to go into the oven. At this point, the baking process is almost over. A lot of what happens from here on out is out of your control. At this point in the process, the cake that you get is mostly pre-determined and there is not much you can do to change the outcome. Sure, you may tell me, “I can add frosting, or glaze the top of it.” While yes, you can add some frosting or glaze the cake, the make of the cake itself is already determined. Remember that recipe you chose, well hopefully the cake you have looks something like what you originally wanted. 

After working through my first semester of college, I have realized that college is a lot like baking a cake. You pick a major a lot like picking your recipe. Hopefully, when you pick your major you have an idea of what you want your life to look like after your education. Just as you have an idea of what you want your cake to look like before baking, there is no guarantee that you will end up getting what you wanted picking a major. The start of your degree pathway may be unrecognizable, having to fulfill prerequisites that may not be completely relevant towards your area of study. Just as a cake needs flour, sugar, eggs, and butter to be the final delicious product, a degree needs these necessary prerequisite classes. 

A few semesters in, you may be happy with your major, you may not. One baking a cake may not have all the ingredients outlined in the recipe and have to use substitutes. Just like in college, you may have to make a few changes whether that be classes or your major in its entirety. Hopefully, while still early in the college degree program, you can start to see some genuine progress towards your final goal. Just as when you bake a cake, the ingredients that may not have seemed too important to baking turn out to start forming the batter that will ultimately be baked into your final product. Most don’t think of the eggs, butter, flour, and sugar that went into the cake when eating it, however without these ingredients they wouldn't be able to eat what is within their mouths. Many don’t think of all those hours studying, struggling, and not gaining immediate success in your studies. Most will just congratulate you for the degree you obtain on your graduation, and overlook what actually put that degree within your hands. 

Towards the end of your college education, there is not much you can do to change your outcome. Maybe you can pick a major similar to what you are already doing if it suits your end goal better, however your path is mostly set. Just as a cake, once you are in the final stages of the baking process, you are limited in the final product that can be produced. Hopefully when you graduate, you see the image that you hoped for when you picked your major. Don’t worry, for many it is not. Maybe the major you picked puts you in a different place of what you originally wanted, but you end up just as happy or even happier. It could be that you are quite disappointed with your college degree but that is okay. The good news is that just like baking a cake, you can always bake another one. Education, while important, is a small part of life. You decide the life you want to live. You can choose your own recipe for success and as always, try again. 

Some may argue that my analogy is not at all accurate to the college experience. It is true that college carries experiences that are often unplanned. Unlike a recipe, you can’t plan out your college experience like it is a step by step process. There will be unexpected twists and turns along the way. However I would say to those that disagree with my analogy that just like a recipe, things can go wrong. You can end up with something completely different than planned for. This is not always a bad thing, and can end up changing your life forever. I would like to say that in college we attempt to make plans, and try to follow them the best we can. Just as we choose a recipe in baking, and hope it turns out to be a success. But just as in baking, we hope for the best but accept that anything can happen.