If you’re in college or attended college, you really don’t think about how crazy it is that at eighteen years old we have to choose what we want to do for the rest of your life until those four years have flown by. Is it not crazy? We go to school and major in something that is going to be our everyday life. If you’re lucky, you’ve known what you wanted to be forever and I envy you. I think it’s hard to make such a big decision at such a young age. Are you in it because you’re passionate about it or because it’ll give you wealth? There are so many questions you have to answer as you’re trying to figure out what you want to do. It’s really not fair to make such a big decision. I mean there’s an exploration field that can help you but what if you want to switch it up in the years to come? Experience comes into play at that point.
What’s the point of all of this? I’m here to tell you that it is okay that you don’t know what you want to do or can’t put into words what you want to do yet. It’s okay to change your major if you see it fit. I changed my major three times. Those three times took me through a journey of learning about myself and figuring out what I wanted to do in life. I started off in Biochemistry with the want to be a doctor at the end of the road. My advisor convinced me to go down the Biology path so I switched it at the beginning of my freshman year and for three years I was Biology with a Pre-Medicine intent. I was set on being a doctor, helping people was my calling but I hated blood, it made me dizzy and I wanted nothing to do with giving shots to children and making them cry. Did any of this make sense? Not to some people. I think the first half of my third year; I realized I couldn’t go do that path anymore. I wasn’t passionate about it anymore. I lost the love I had for this field. I went into Nursing instead — almost the exact same field. They do just as much work as doctors and save lives constantly.
Nursing had potential, it really did. But Anatomy was my downfall. I would have panic attacks in the cadaver room and it got to a point where the lab teaching assistants told me I should just sit out of the lab for the rest of the year. There went that career move. Anatomy was essential to being a Nursing student. Luckily that semester I was also taking a Fashion History class and that spiked my interest in fashion and the world that revolved around it. I didn’t necessarily want to go into Merchandising or Design – I can’t draw and I definitely didn’t want to take the CSE class that was a pre-requisite. It wasn’t until I was reading Glamour and it’s 30 Women under 35 that led successful careers and one stuck out to me, Public Relations for Oscar De La Renta. I was already obsessed with Oscar De La Renta so seemed like destiny to me. I went into Communications and voila, here I am now a Social Media Manager as of two weeks from now.
It’s okay to not have down exactly what you want to do. It took me five years of schooling to get a degree – although, the last semester I just took because I wasn’t ready to jump into the workforce in Winter 2015. I was lucky enough to stay in the College of Arts & Science with all my changes so my GE courses were completed and I didn’t have to do that over. Throughout my job search, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. There are times when I consider going back to school to be a teacher because I want to work in urban settings that give kids a chance to succeed in life. It takes a lot to figure out what you want to do, a lot to focus on one thing instead of trying to do a million things. College is a time to explore and figure you out. Don’t let anyone tell you to settle on something and don’t let anyone sway the way you feel about a certain subject.
Explore
You are in charge of your education. It is your choice to figure out what path you want to take. People are going to suggest things at all times and that’s oaky – you can politely take in what they have to say but at the end of the day, you are in charge of your destiny. If you want to take a class that isn’t in your college or major, go for it. IF you want to see what else it out there, do it. These four or five years are your chance to take as many chances and take all the opportunities you can get.
Don’t Be Afraid
You have so many chances to try out different things. Don’t think you have to stick to the curriculum. You can easily take an Art History class if it fulfills a general history requirement. You can step out of the box, it’s your education. You get to choose what you learn for the most part. Take classes that intrigue you and classes that are going to teach you things you have no idea about. College is about trying new things and you get so many opportunities to do that. Never be afraid to make your own decisions, there might be some difficulty along the way but at the end of the day, fear and nerves will hold you back from your greatness.
Never Settle
Settling should never be a choice. You need to be 100% passionate about what you’re going to do. Don’t decide to do something because you think it’ll work out and that’s all you are looking for. Don’t decide to be a doctor because the money is going to be there in the end. You won’t be happy if you settle. Trust me, I know. I refuse to settle in everything that I now. I know what I want and I know that it’s not going to be an easy battle but I will never settle. There will come a point in time when people want you to settle for mediocracy and that’s not going to work for you. That’s okay, prove that you are a force to be reckoned with — that settling is nowhere near your vocabulary.
At the end of the day, what you decide to do is going to have to make you happy. You want to be excited about what you’re doing and passionate. I get a smile on my face whenever I get to talk about my career in public relations and marketing. I love what I do and I love the psychology behind it. It’s my passion, it truly is and I’m blessed to find a career that is going to allow me to flourish in what I love and in what I’m good at. I hope the same for you all. Changing your major might seem like a big deal but at the end of the day, you’re setting your own path and you have to learn what is right and wrong for you to do.
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