College is full of hardships, at some points there are too many to name. But with those hardships comes endless knowledge and memories that help to build character and connections that last a life time. As you get further into your college career you start to realize the people around you are around you for more than just one class or lab. You can all sympathize with each other over inside jokes, insanely difficult professors and classes, and even the struggle when it comes to being ridiculed for your choice of career path and major.
As far as majors go, there is not one that is considered “easy.” A person doesn’t tend to choose a major based on the difficulty, they choose it, normally, because they are pursuing a career that they enjoy and know will lead them to success. Having one major, or “dream job,” throughout a person’s life and college career is not a requirement nor is it a norm.
The amount of times people change their major because they just don’t think it works for them is truly countless, and that is 100% okay! For me, my final decision on what my major would be did not come until three different majors were pursued. But now that I have my major set, I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment and love getting to start on my path.
As a psychology major, I have my fair share of “eye roll” moments when it comes to comments from other people, as I’m sure other psyc majors and other students in general, can agree. Here is a top 10 list of things psychology majors know oh too well.
1. When you discuss majors with someone: “You’re a psychology major? That’s so cool! What am I thinking right now?”
Hate to burst bubbles here, but being a psychology major does not mean I can read minds, it simply means I understand the mind and all its functions and can possibly diagnose you, depending on what my specialty is.
2. That moment when talking casually about majors and someone has a quick panic attack because of what your major is.
“You’re a psychology major? I better stay away from you or you’ll diagnose me or try and analyze me.”
News flash, being a psychology major does not mean I have some type of superpower. My only superpower that I might have is being able to stay up for long amounts of time without needing a nap but that’s only because I have so much work that has to be done for all my classes, just like any other college student. Also, me analyzing you has nothing to do with my major, you’re going to get analyzed whether I’m a psych major or even a bio major.
3. “Wow, psychology. So basically a biology major that couldn’t cut it.”
The endless cuts, jabs, and insults never get old.
4. “Psych major? Way to take the easy way out.”
Again, another form of a jab that really makes no sense but people tend to say it anyway.
5. When you’re sitting in a class you HAVE to take to count toward your prerequistes: “So I don’t really understand this, I’m just taking this class as a part of my pre-reqs.”
Every college student has to go through this at some point. Not just psychology majors, but I had this conversation with my partner in my class the other day and I found it so relevant.
6. When hearing a bell, we have become conditioned to automatically think of Pavlov and a dog.
Whether we admit it or not, I know I am not the only one who automatically thinks of the revolutionary Pavlov whenever I see a cartoon drawing of a dog, or even hear a bell to signal the start of something, which we all know acts as a conditioned stimulus.
7. “Being a psychology major must mean you’re pretty screwed up yourself.”
Why yes, whenever I hear this I just shake my head in agreement because not only does it make me laugh uncontrollably, but it also makes me wonder, am I truly screwed up or have I just been around a lot of screwed up people.
8. When you’re taking so many psychology classes at one time you get everything all mixed together and can’t quite remember which theory or relevancy pairs with which because there is just so many.
9.“If you’re a psych major you must be really good at listening to people.”
This is not entirely true. I CAN be really good at listening I just sometimes choose not to. And, not every psychology major chooses to purse being a therapist so listening is not always a skill that must be present.
10. No matter how many psychology classes you take, you continuously want to learn because the amount of information and knowledge one can obtain from psychology is truly endless.
Being a psychology major has opened me up to a whole new world of people, mindsets and lifestyles. I feel like I constantly am learning something and I never get bored. I hope that for everyone who is considering psychology as a possible field of study that you pursue it and get to learn as much as you can. It is a great field with so many different opportunities. I wish all you future psychologists the best of luck and welcome to the “club.”
