Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, ever since the sixth grade, I wanted to become a biomedical engineer. It seemed like the perfect balance between medicine and engineering, two things I was really interested in at the time.
Despite the fact that it's nearly impossible to know exactly what you want to pursue at the age of 11, my heart and my mind were fixed on pursuing an engineering degree from Georgia Tech.
Fast forward to the fall of my senior year: I was applying to a couple in-state colleges (including Tech), and a few out-of-state schools that had strong biomedical engineering programs.
At the same time, I was taking AP Chemistry, and I had taken several other AP science classes in high school but I didn't enjoy any of them. It wasn't just that these classes were hard; I also had a hard time keeping myself engaged in these classes because I didn't think they were interesting at all.
In January of my senior year, I was accepted into Georgia Tech. I committed that same day, despite the fact that I was having doubts about my future career goals. A few weeks after I had committed to Tech, I realized that biomedical engineering was not the path that I wanted to pursue. I still really wanted to design health and fitness technology, but I wanted to go about it a different way.
That was when I found out about Industrial Design. The ID program at my school has a health studio option, where students can learn how to design health technology. Without thinking twice, I did everything I could to get past my school's first-year major change restrictions, and I managed to unofficially change my major before freshman year even started.
My first day of classes were intimidating. While I used to draw and paint all the time as a kid, I never considered myself to be artistically inclined. At first, I felt like an outsider in my classes, like I wasn't an art student. I had never been in an "artsy" environment before, and I didn't know
I've had second thoughts about Industrial Design, but what I've grown to love about the major is the sense of community. I know the name of each and every person in my major. I've spent really late nights in the studio with these people, and they've grown to become my second family at Georgia Tech. The environment is such an extroverted environment and people are always working together and collaborating on anything and everything.
My professors actually know my name and my design style, and it's really nice to be graded based on my project-making abilities rather than my test-taking skills. I can unashamedly ask anybody in studio for help, and I have my own desk where I can keep my stuff.
I've walked around other buildings at Tech, but I've never gotten the same feeling that I get when I walk into the College of Design. Changing my major to something I knew close to nothing about was a huge risk and it was extremely impulsive. But, sometimes, these decisions are the best ones we make.
