Jene Thomas – General Assignment Reporter
Within one to four years, you were raising your hand to use the bathroom and now all of a sudden, you have to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life.
We’re young and impulsive so most of us are probably going to change our minds a few times, and that’s okay. Declaring a major and picking a career path are big decisions.
Even if after all of the talk with your parents and advisors, you manage to figure out your major, you could still change your mind. Careers aren’t part-time jobs. They follow you for most of your life so you might as well enjoy.
To determine if you are in the right major, might I suggest taking some classes outside of your major.
People constantly complain about the LEP requirements, but what they fail to realize is that those classes were put in place to get students exploring areas of study outside of their majors. Why else would you need “global awareness,” “creative drive,” or “technological fluency?”
Personally, I had no intention of having a minor. I was set on just getting a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism. My first semester here, I took Italian 1 to begin fulfilling my language requirements and I absolutely loved it. I acted like I knew how to say everything even though I had only taken one semester.
I knew what basic words meant but I wanted to speak it fluently and impress my peers. It was then that I decided to surpass the language requirements and declare a minor in Italian.
Without trying new things, how are you supposed to know what you really like or don’t like?
Perhaps you are in the exact field that you want to be in, which would be awesome. As you get into your major, all of your classes start to solely focus on career aspects. Your course load will pile up and it may seem overwhelming. To balance that out, try taking something out of the box. Take up painting to de-stress.
Like many students here, you could be a social work major. You’ll be constantly studying case studies and family relationships. Maybe you’re a nursing student and you have clinical packets on top of other clinical packets to complete.
It all starts to look the same after a while. It’d be in your best interest to take your mind off of it and explore a lighter subject like philosophy and creative writing.
As you get to higher level classes, the classrooms become smaller and smaller. Each program weeds out the ones that weren’t fully invested, and yet you’re still there, along with your classmates.
When you get to those classes where there’s only one section to take, you’re going to be around the same people all of the time. How would you meet new people if you were in classes with the same 20 students?
Photo Credit: Monica Zielinski
