CHOOSING A CAREER

With the approach of mid-years and the end of the first half on the College year, Seniors in particular and other undergraduates to a less degree are reminded that the time is soon at hand when they must put the results of their training to a practical test and prove their "raison d'etre" by securing and holding a job. Strange to say, many men, some of them ready to graduate have only the haziest notion of the position for which they are supposed to have been fitting. They drift along fatuously believing that sooner or later they will discover hidden talents and astonish the world.

Some of the greatest men of history have mistaken their vocations and found their true work only after false starts. Goethe began to study for the law and schiller spent some years as any army surgeon. Sir Francis Bacon believed that his fame would rest of his career as a lawyer and statesman. Bourne-Jones did not begin to paint until he was nearly thirty years old. In our own time we have seen Mr. Booth Tarkington who aspired to be an artist emerge as one of the leading American authors.

Because these men have changed so successfully from one line of endeavor to another, we should not make the mistake of believing that greatness depends simply on indecisive waiting. All of these men early in life made a definite aim for themselves and worked hard to reach it. They gave up their old ambition only when they could substitute a new one for it.

During the first weeks of the new year and before choosing courses for the second half-year all undergraduates, whether they expect to receive degrees in June or not would do well to consider seriously their real work in life. For those who cannot decide for themselves, advice should be sought from professors, friends in business or some profession, and from the conversations of the undergraduates who are in similar states of indecision. In any case, as President Lowell has often urged, decide on something definite and work hard to accomplish it.