For a long time, I thought I knew for sure what I wanted to do with my life. At the age of five I loved my Easy Bake Oven so much, I told myself that I wanted to grow up and own my own bakery. As adorable as that sounds, I tried to keep that dream alive through my studies in college. I knew that I wanted my own business so I chose business as my major.
My freshman year at Wells College, I took a lot of liberal arts courses and a few specific courses for my business major. It wasn't until midway through my first semester of my sophomore year that I began to dread the business courses I was taking.
My friends, being the amazing support system that they are, realized I was unhappy way before I did. They would constantly ask me “Are you sure you want to be a business major?” And me being stubborn as I am would respond “Of course I do! This class is just really stressful.”
In February, I attended the Black Solidarity Conference at Yale University with Umoja, one of Wells’ diversity clubs. At this year’s conference, there were a few workshops and discussions that focused specifically on mental health. I found myself incredibly interested in these events more so than the others being offered. When Umoja had a debriefing on the information that we learned, I mainly gave feedback on the mental health workshops, with great excitement.About one week later, one of my friends that have been constantly hinting at me about changing my major, suggested it again. We were having a heart-to-heart over coffee and I expressed to her that I was still really stressed and overwhelmed with my coursework. She looked me in the eye and calmly expressed "You are not happy. You just aren't. You are forcing yourself to drag through this major that you don't see a potentially successful future in." I instantly realized everything she said was true. I was a Business major and Psychology minor but I subconsciously had interests solely in the psychology field.I had to realize that I was trying to live out a dream of my 5-year-old self but that wasn't the same dream and passions of my 19-year-old self. It took almost two full years for me to realize my true passion but I am proud and happy to say that I have changed and redeclared my major to Psychology with my minor being Business.
