Ever since I was a child my future career always shifted.

In elementary school, I wanted to be a lawyer. Later, after watching Grey’s Anatomy, I became convinced that my future was in cardiothoracic surgery. By the time I graduated from high school, however, I realized that the specific career mattered less to me than the opportunity to help people. As climate change and environmental policy have increasingly taken a back seat in recent years, that desire to make a difference evolved into a new question: should I pursue astrophysics and astronomy to help identify potentially habitable planets for humanity, or work to develop policies that protect and preserve the world we already call home?

Harvard became an opportunity to explore both of these questions.

I remember attending the Academic Fair at the beginning of my first year. One of the first “Harvard lessons” that I learned was that majors and minors exist under a new name here: concentrations and secondary fields. At first, it was definitely overwhelming with Harvard’s 51 concentrations and countless secondary fields, but it quickly became easy to identify the subjects that interested me most.

I bounced from Government to Global Health and Health Policy, to Environmental Sciences and Public Policy, to Psychology, until finally I made it to Astrophysics. I should have prefaced that half of the concentration’s title is “physics” which I had never taken in high school or been exposed to before.

Regardless, I walked up to the table and faced my fears.

I asked the advisor the one question that was on my mind: is physics required for astrophysics? He mentioned that while a background in physics wasn’t required, it certainly helped, especially with some of the introductory courses. Encouraged by the advisor, I took this as a possible concentration path and continued exploring the other concentrations that the college offered.

When classes started in my freshman fall, I took primarily Government and Economics courses, but decided to  venture back into Astrophysics for the spring semester. I enrolled in GENED1184: Worlds Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of Our Solar System. When picking classes for the semester, it made sense to take this specific course because if I found a heightened love for astrophysics, I could switch concentrations. If I found out that astrophysics wasn’t my true passion, then I could continue with Government and still satisfy the Science and Technology General Education requirement.

I have to admit that after taking the class, one thing became very clear: my future concentration would not be Astrophysics.

My love for astronomy remained and my curiosity was certainly piqued, but it simply just wasn’t the right fit for me. I realized that I love the qualitative and exploratory aspects of science, but the quantitative aspects are a little less than ideal. Once rocket equations were introduced, it seemed pretty clear to me that any of the social sciences would be a much better fit for me.

However, that’s not where my concentration journey ends.

At the end of my first year at college, I found a newfound love and interest in a very different field: communications. I wanted to study the interconnectedness of media, policy, and the public, and how people influence government systems and how government systems in turn influence the public. The only thing stopping me from choosing communications as a possible concentration is that Harvard doesn’t offer it.

Harvard offers 51 different concentrations, however journalism and communications is not one of them. This prompted me to explore a new and unique route of my Harvard experience: Special Concentrations.

One of the aspects of Harvard that appealed to me most when choosing my college is the ability for students to create their own concentrations. With an academic plan, approval from faculty, and a very good concentration outline, you can concentrate in almost anything you’re interested in. While I heavily considered going through the process to create my own concentration focused on policy and media, I soon realized that it felt too limiting. I still wanted to explore the historical fundamentals and theoretical aspects of government systems.

This placed me in an academic crisis. Which passion would I pursue? Communications and Policy or Government?

When it came time to officially declare my concentration, my future path became clear

On Concentration Declaration Day, a day in which all Harvard sophomores declare a concentration, I declared a double concentration in Government and Philosophy. This was in large part due to one of the courses I took in my sophomore fall, PHIL 27: Truth, Lies, and the Press. This class single-handedly influenced me to consider and declare Philosophy as one of my two concentrations.

While this course embodied everything I had imagined for my proposed communications and policy concentration, it also introduced me to Philosophy as a new academic home. One thing that I’ve always known is that I love exploring questions and morality, and philosophy provides a way to examine how our perceptions of right and wrong shape both society and the institutions that govern it.

After my policy internship the summer before my sophomore year, I also discovered the world of health policy. That experience inspired me to declare a secondary concentration in Global Health and Health Policy.

While every Harvard student has a different journey when picking their concentration, mine stretched across different disciplines and interests and more than a few moments of uncertainty. In the end, I found a path that brought together almost everything that I loved.

No matter what, you are never supposed to have it all figured it out. Some things are worth the wait- and the journey.