One of my most vivid memories from my childhood occurred right after my fourth birthday party. Sitting on the floor of my grandparents' house, I unwrapped the last of my gifts and sternly, out of the blue, declared to my parents that I wanted to be a chemist, or rather, a "chemisist," when I grew up. In retrospect, after completing the first half of "General Chemistry," I have to admit that I would rather gouge my eyes out than spend my entire career in a chemistry lab. However, since that declaration, I have also wanted to be a food allergist, a firefighter, a neurosurgeon, a linguist, a journalist for The New York Times, a roller coaster tester, a novelist, a professor and a philosopher. Now that I have finally (for now) settled upon a double major in Neuroscience and Philosophy with a Hebrew minor, I am beginning to narrow my career goals. When I was a child, perhaps the most significant aspect of a career was the uniform you wore. However, in college, students become poignantly aware of how their career choices will affect their future life in ways other than their daily wardrobes. A person's career will eventually dictate his lifestyle, social circle and, which my four-year-old self was unaware of, his salary.

Money and creative ways to make and save it play a large role in the lives of college students. Students begin to wonder if the career destinations set out by the path of their college majors will eventually support their desired lifestyles. Unfortunately, success of this kind is often confused for happiness. The idea of happiness is more synonymous with satisfaction than success.

It is an unfortunate side effect of our capitalist-driven economy that the concept of wealth satisfies people. People in America have historically believed that wealth will satisfy them, but it will not. Money provokes only a superficial, passing sense of happiness. As a result, far too often, college becomes a time for students to study what they believe will ultimately put them in the position to make the maximum amount of money. However, college should be the time in life that is most densely packed with exploration-there is such an abundance of opportunities available, interesting people with whom to discuss, and freedom to do as much or as little exploring as you would like. College is the time to take what you are given and stretch it to maximize its creative potential.?It is the time to make something generic into something different in a way that only one's own experiences and ideas could allow. For this reason, students should study what interests them now, for satisfaction will undoubtedly follow. One should not feel obligated to study to be a Business major if one is actually interested in psychology, just as one should not study to be a doctor if one is more interested in anthropology.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article in which I commended Brandeis for forcing students to expand their horizons by placing a seven-semester residency requirement on all students. This obliges students who are too hasty to graduate with their desired degrees to continue exploring new classes that stray from their existing interests. As a liberal arts college, Brandeis helps students who are reluctant to drift from their predetermined academic paths to realize the full scope of not only their academic potentials but also their potentials for happiness. Majoring in a random humanities field may not hold the promise of a successful career, but in addition to making you a more well-rounded candidate for a job in a separate field, it makes you a more interesting person. As a more well-rounded person, extra opportunities such as internships and travel destinations become appealing, thus making life an exciting and unpredictable confluence of events. By ignoring peripheral interests, one will miss out on these opportunities, which will cause one to lead the most simple life he or she has planned.

As children, we were full of dreams and unlimited possibilities laid out before us. Now that we are in college, who is to say that we must curtail our options by being so serious about following the path of a specific career? At our ages, why should our goals be dependant upon what degrees could make us the most money?