Personally hearing the question "What's your major?" gives my stomach the worst knots you could ever imagine. I'm not sure exactly why yet, but I think I have a pretty solid idea. Psychology tends to have the reputation of being the major that people pick when they aren't exactly sure what they want to do with their lives yet. While I know for a fact that is not the case in every situation, like mine.

I have known since a very young age that I want to go into a field where I will be helping others and learning more about myself by figuring other people out. The idea of making someones life even the slightest bit better, would give me an amount of satisfaction to last a lifetime. According to the American Psychological Association, social and behavioral sciences doctoral programs only enrolled 1.1 percent more graduates in 2010 than in 2009. While that percentage decreased by .9 percent, the economy has played a big factor into the amount of people that actually make it all the way through. Some potential and already accepted applicants are finding jobs and jumping right into the work force in a different field. Reading this article honestly gives me a slither of doubt about wanting to pursue a career in this field, and that's the problem. Growing up where practicality is a main principle, there were and still are times where I start to question my ways. While practicality is very important, I could never see myself doing something I didn't enjoy just to get by. Yes, there is a lot of school involved, and yes, I'll be paying off school loans until I'm 50 but I know deep down it will all be worth it.

My favorite philosopher, Alan Watts, stated in his famous "What If Money Were No Object" speech, "When we finally got down to something, which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually turn it – you could eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to become a master of something, to be really with it."

The first time I heard this clip, I got this feeling inside that is very difficult to describe. It was some mixture between uneasiness and pride. I think the uneasiness came from knowing that I really had no excuse to back out now. Having an older sister that is pursuing to be a business lawyer, I feel the heat sometimes knowing that her job is going to give her more benefits and be more accommodating to her life. Don't get me wrong, my family has never been opposed to the fact of me studying to be a psychologist. I think they are just trying to be realistic about the chance of me getting all the way to my doctorate degree. I understand that, but I take pride in knowing that deep down I can pull this off and make it to my ultimate goal.

I may not know exactly what I would like to do with the degree, but I know that I want to work very hard and be the best that I can be at what I decide to do. Pursuing a psychology degree, especially a doctoral degree, will not be easy and there will be times when I want to quit, but I don't want to be included in that statistic from above. I am determined to get my degree as efficiently as I can and start doing the one thing I truly want to do. So from now on, I will proudly stand by my decision to be a psychology major.