Last week, I shared an article listing my 21 pieces of advice for this year’s incoming freshmen class. However, as I was talking to some friends this week as our first week of classes wrapped up, I realized that I forgot one very important idea: If you hate your major, you should change it.
See, I wasn’t always an English major, learning, and studying and practicing what I loved. When I started college, I was a declared business major. I had convinced myself that I wanted to be an accountant or an executive or an entrepreneur. So the first semester of my freshman year, I went to my intro to business classes, and I was bored out of my mind the entire time.
About halfway through the semester, I met with my advisor, and while we were discussing which classes I should be taking the following semester, she said something that’s since been permanently seared into my brain: “You don’t like business. That’s okay. So get out. There are people who do like business and are excited to be business majors. So let those people be business majors and find something that makes you excited.”
The next semester, I took an intro to literary studies class, and for the first time since I’d come to college, I felt like my life was actually on track. I had found my subject and the place where I belonged.
Deciding to change my major was the best decision I’ve ever made.
People will tell you all sorts of things. There are biases that some majors are “better” than others and that it’s more worthwhile to study business or pharmaceutical sciences than it is to study art, literature, and languages. Granted, some majors might make you more employable in certain sectors, but if you hate your major, you’re probably going to hate the job that comes along with it.
The point is, if you’re not passionate, it’s not worth it. If you can’t talk for hours on end about what you’re studying, you’re in the wrong major. If you don’t annoy your friends and family by telling them about everything you’ve learned over the course of the semester, you’re in the wrong major. If you’re not willing to stay up until 3 a.m. crafting the perfect essay or finishing an important project, you’re in the wrong major.
It’s not worth the time, the energy, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the money that you will inevitably spend on your education if you’re not head over heels in love with what you’re doing.
That isn’t to say that there won’t be days where you hate everything and question all your life choices, because you will. That passion and excitement will never be tamped down for long.
So if you’re looking for a sign to change your major, take this as one. Fall in love with what you do because life’s too short to not do what you love.
