Let me preface this by saying that I have boundless respect for anyone in the Veterinary field; they work so hard and go through many years of tough training and schooling to be successful. I personally could not do what they do.

I have known I'm destined to be a vet since I was seven. Not unlike many kids at this age, I was completely invested in one game. The difference is, that game for me was a CDROM Pet-Vet game. I spent hours upon hours studying, training, and treating different virtual animals with virtual illnesses. Instead of Pokemon, I watched Zoboomafoo. I treated my pets as my patients and used ace bandages on their 'wounds' (sorry Winnie).

Fast forward to fifth grade. I discover that blood is, in fact, a real thing that comes out of animals (EW!) and that every vet story does not end happily. I, therefore, decide that I will own a Barkery instead, making specialty treats and cakes for animal special occasions.

Eventually, I get over my fear of blood and decide on people medicine. Both of my parents are in the medical field and it seemed very fitting. I spent my entire high school career focusing on medical classes, eventually entering a Clinical Internship class my senior year and having the time of my life shadowing medical professionals. One of the sites that I had the pleasure of visiting was an animal hospital. It was during this time that I solidified my true love of Veterinary Medicine- or so I thought.

My first semester of college was stressful at best and more overwhelming than I ever thought possible. I realized what it really meant to be a science major who only enjoyed field work as opposed to lecture classes. I was stressed, miserable, and already freaking out over a test I wouldn't have to take for another three and a half years. I did scholarship work with one of the professors in the Biology department, and as part of my work, I transferred journal articles from print into an online database. As I was doing this, I realized that I was spending more and more time reading what the journal articles said rather than copying them into the computer. My love for reading far overshone my love for science.

I have always been an avid reader. My great-grandmother was an English teacher for thirty years and instilled upon me a great love for written language. In elementary school, the librarians joked with me that I needed to slow down because soon they'd have to bring books from the college library for me to read because I'd have read their library dry already. I never thought of English as a career choice, just a closeted passion. Then I hit senior year of high school.

In my senior year of high school, I entered my AP English Four class with no intentions of learning anything; it was simply an advanced course that would look good on a college application. What I found instead is a true passion for reading and writing and a community of people who thought the same way I did. I can honestly say that my teacher in that class, Coach Price, changed my life for the better. He taught stories upon stories along with how to write full essays in forty minutes, but more importantly, he taught us to be good people. He preached honesty and love for one another along with lessons each character we read about learned. We dove deeper into meanings of works of literature than I had ever been before. This class was not about grades or the AP test or how many works we could get through; it was about true learning and application of what we learned to be better people. He is the person I most aspire to be like as an adult.

When I first had the idea of changing my major, I needed no time to decide that I'd do English instead. The speed of my decision was really the solidifying moment that I was indeed going through with the change. I met with a few advisors who were surprised to say the least but completely supportive of what I was doing. Then I just had to make my decision known to my friends and the dreaded parental units, who all accepted me with open arms and much more support than I thought I'd receive. There was no question of my conviction or of knowing that I was in for a significant pay decrease moving forward. I was happy and that's all that mattered.

Now that I'm an English major, with a minor in Professional Education if you're wondering, I realize how much unnecessary pressure I was putting on myself to achieve something I didn't realize at the time was something I didn't want.

Going forward, I hope to follow my heart as much as my brain and look at my future career as something I need to be completely happy and fulfilled with rather than something used to buy happiness.