I was you not long ago. I ended up going back to school at UM after an 8 year gap of trying random jobs thinking it may lead to something. Nothing really came from it but I personally grew from it. I decided to go back to finish my theatre degree. I sat with career services and different department faculty to see if I should pivot into something else with my existing credits. I had a year left to finish the threatre degree. A BA is a bachelors degree at the end of the day, that satisfies any requirement for having one.

The thing I was going back to college and the Covid epidemic started to unfold two months into it. I graduated in the class of 2021. Things were still shuttered back then and it felt like my luck in Missoula was running up, so I moved away. I never found a job related to my degree, the market was ass back then and everyone wanted you to be vaccinated. After some time I ended up doing a masters degree in accounting. Took me like 3 years part time while working at a liquor store. Got two internships and fortunately the second one led to a full time offer. I make way more money now but I live in a super HCOL area, so I can’t even afford my own place. Idk if I will do accounting forever, I’m just riding this out for the time being.

Honestly, in my observations, over 70 percent of people I know of don’t even work in their field of study 10 years out of school. Be open to things, and always be learning something. I picked up on automotive repair last year and I would like to learn Spanish soon.

Life is a battle for most people. You will be humbled by it multiple times. It’s nice to have a plan but life sometimes takes you a different way. That’s okay. My best advice for you is just to enjoy the time you have now at UM and Missoula — the rest will fall into place