Most of the people I met before I changed my major have not yet realized I am not in the major I started out in and most of the people I met after I changed my major do not know that I was ever in anything else. It is not information I give out readily because I know what most of their reactions will be: “Well, pre-med is hard.”

That’s right. I started out pre-med, in the med scholars program, even. And now I’m a double major in English and Communications. Now, I am very proud of my choice and the majors I am in, now, and know they are not something to turn your nose up at. However, these majors always seem to fall short in the eyes of people who know that I started out in biology on the pre-med track. Their reactions therefore reflect their beliefs and in some cases, their disappointment, with my choice to change my major.

Pre-med is really hard.

Yes, pre-med is hard. Yes, keeping a 3.65 GPA in the pre-med track to stay in the Med Scholars Program is hard. No, that is not why I changed my major.

As far as grades, I was doing just fine in my major. I was staying on track with my GPA and faring pretty well in my classes. However, this is nobody’s business and none of this had anything to do with my major change. I wasn’t liking my major. I didn’t enjoy my classes, I wasn’t engaged in what I was learning, and I didn’t feel committed to my career choice. Science had been something I was good at, but it was not the subject I liked most, though I tried to make myself believe it was. I am not a “science person.” I don’t thrive in logical or analytical settings, but rather creatively and socially. So, though I’m good at science, I don’t feel I’m suited for a science field. And pre-med may be hard, but its difficulty did not decide for me my exit from the program.

But you’re so smart.

Okay, English and Communications are not “easy” majors. They do not require less intelligence than biology, but a different kind of intelligence. In fact, someone who succeeds in science classes may find introductory English classes somewhat tedious, and higher-level English major classes downright difficult. It’s all about the type of person you are and the way you learn.

Switching majors does not make me any less smart nor does it mean I am wasting my intelligence. Rather, I am utilizing the intelligence I have through the channel that fits me best, and I believe wholeheartedly that it is through the majors I have chosen. I understand that all doctors are smart people, but not all smart people become doctors.

You’d make more money as a doctor.

If I had a nickel… I know that being a doctor is a notoriously high-paying occupation. I mean, obviously I was considering that when I thought that’s what I wanted to do. I also understand that nobody knows what the heck you can do with a degree in English. Well, there is a lot that you can do with a degree in English, but isn’t it more important what I want to do with that degree? I mean, obviously, I want to be a writer, but I don’t even mention that to most people, because telling someone you want to write novels gets about the same reaction as telling someone you want to be a movie star. I get that its hard and the chances of being successful aren’t great, but it’s what I love and what I want to do. But still, I tell everyone I want to work in publishing (which I do) or as a public relations specialist (which would also be great). I want to work with books, I want to work with people, but mostly, I want to write. And, though none of those include being a doctor, I will be making money: enough to live off of, enough to be comfortable, enough for me.

I do not readily tell people about how I got to be in the majors I am in, because I hate hearing the assumptions so many people make about who I am and why I made the choice I did. What most people don’t understand is that this decision was one of the hardest I have ever had to make, and was an integral part of my own self-discovery. When I came to college, I found who I really was and who I wanted to be. My life no longer revolved around being what I thought I should be or what I wanted everyone else to see. I have never been so genuinely me than when I started college and decided that I didn’t belong in my major. So, after many tearful, restless nights, a thousand and one calls to my mom, and an undoubted determination to get my life going in the direction I wanted, I changed my major and am proud of my decision to do so. So people may say what they want, and what they say will still bother me, but at the end of the day, their assumptions do not reflect who I am.