Being in the Wrong Major

Let’s face it- junior year of high school is arguably the most stressful year of high school. You start to think about what college(s) to apply for, the hundreds of scholarship apps you’ll need to fill out in order to even go to college, and what major you’ll decide to be. Year after year, your teachers and guidance counselors told you to not only major in something you “like” but also major in something that is practical and will make you money; so majors like professional writing or psychology always raised the question “what are you gonna do with that after you graduate?”  But by my second year of college, I realized that I had inadvertently gone along with that same mindset. I was also more miserable in my major and felt it would only get worse.

My first two years of college, I was a biology major. My ultimate dream was to be a doctor and I was never going to give up on that dream, even though biology is one of the hardest majors out there. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to be a doctor more than anything else in this world, but I found that majoring in biology just wasn’t for me. I have a special love and appreciation for science, but I also love more artistic things such as playing the piano and writing poetry. While being a biology major, I found that my major was taking so much out of me in every way possible that I actually started to hate it. I hated going to class, I hated the material, and I especially hated how expensive all those books were getting. I felt so trapped! Then it dawned on me- I came to college not only for a degree, but to grow and expand my way of thinking and I wasn’t getting that. So I decided to make a change.

I took a sociology class last year and I instantly fell in love with it. I realized that I was more excited about going to class more so than I ever was while in college. The work for that class didn’t seem like work to me; it was enjoyable and extremely fulfilling. And while I was searching through a long list of majors to choose from, I thought to myself-“why am I making this so hard?!” In that moment, I knew sociology was for me.

Once I told my advisors, friends, and family about my change, I was bombarded with questions, comments, and a whole lot of concerns. I felt I had to give them more than just “because it just feels right” but I realized, that’s all I really needed. (Plus, if I’m gonna be spending thousands of dollars and 4+ years on a degree, I sure better enjoy every penny I’m spending and every hour of work I’m gonna be putting in.) But once I also explained that I can still go to med school and take the necessary prereqs while studying something I didn’t realize I always loved, everyone started to realize why I made the change in the first place. Now, this fall, I will officially be declaring my major as Sociology with a concentration in Medical Sociology and I may even add a minor in Chemistry! And even though I have a long road of ahead of me, at least I know I’ll be happy. I’ll have time to get back to the things I love such as playing the piano and having the opportunity to write for an amazing blog such as this one!

So if you’re having legitimate thoughts of changing your major (because let’s be real, we all have those thoughts at some point during college), talk to your advisor. Really do some soul searching and do what you feel is right in your heart. Who cares if no one else sees the vision that you do?! You only go through this kind of college experience once, so why waste it on being in a major you hate? Do what you love and have a passion for. If that ends up being a major that’ll make great money, then good for you. If not, you’ll always figure out a way to make it work. Trust yourself and trust in your instincts and you can’t go wrong.  

Look at the great job Charisse did on her first article!