I enormously value the intellectual framework associated with economics, and my career has provided terrific opportunities both to range far afield and to work within the field. In short, I hope you will think of economics not as shutting doors on other opportunities, but rather as equipping you to pursue a whole new set of opportunities.
Given the benefits I have described to the profession and society from increasing diversity in the ranks of economists, as well as the opportunity a degree in economics affords to individuals who pursue the field, it makes sense to look closely, as the AEA and others continue to do, at the reasons more women and minorities do not concentrate in economics in college or depart from economics as they move toward graduation.