I spent my last two years of high school with blinders on and my eyes set on the major I knew I wanted. I spent my junior and senior year researching schools, looking into what I wanted to do once I graduated and what I wanted to go back to school for later on. I knew Nursing was for me. Then I spent the day tagging along on an open house at another college and my life was turned absolutely upside down when I found the true major for me.
With three years under my belt of knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life, I was left hopelessly lost. I spent months with a racing heart wondering if I made the right choice, but this past year has taught me that changing your majors isn't the end of the world. In fact, it can be a refreshing new start.
1. Your choice might have been salary-motivated
Who hasn't thought about their potential future salary when figuring out what they wanted to do with their life? I made this mistake - I knew I would have a job right after graduation as a nursing student and I knew there was potential for more money if I went back to school later on. But money can be blinding and can fog your view of the future. You shouldn't force yourself through medical school just to have a $500,000 a year salary if that's not what you want to do, because you'll never be happy a day in your life if you're only in it for the money.
2. Choosing a major is stressful
When researching colleges, it's easy to become overwhelmed, especially as time becomes limited. High school seniors who are applying for schools are often finding that you also have to apply to your major, which means everyone is expecting 17 and 18-year-olds to decide their future on a college application. Too often this leads to applicants just picking a major that they think seems interesting. I've actually met other students who have flat out said they didn't 100 percent understand what their major was, and they just picked it because it sounded like fun and they didn't want to do the research.
Don't let the stress get to you! If you picked your major because it was too stressful not to, just explore and give yourself the opportunity to discover what you love!
3. College classes will open your eyes
You take an elective your junior year of high school just to fill out that one last spot in your schedule and Law One is the only option you have, so you take the class. You spend the year falling in love with the law and you decide that you want to go to law school. You apply to schools to get your pre-reqs out of the way so you can go to a great law school. You sit down for your first class of your first semester and you can't wait to learn all about the criminal justice system! Within the first week, you realize that your silly little Law One class in high school barely scratched the surface of what the Criminal Justice system is really like, and it is not at all what you expected. Now what?
Change majors!
I went into nursing wanting to learn about how the body works and how to fix any problem that could arise. I quickly learned that what I wanted to become was in fact a doctor, not a nurse. In my feverish research about nursing, I failed to actually research what nurses do, and too many students pick their majors without even understanding what the field is really like.
4. Maybe someone pressured you
I grew up hearing over and over again, "Don't be afraid to pick a major that will make you money, even if it's not what you want to do," and having something like that drilled into your head for years by someone you look up to so much can have a big impact. I spent so much time focusing on making money for myself with the major that I chose, that I forgot to make sure I would be happy with the major I chose.
5. You will change
Let's face it, no one walks out of college the same person they came into college as. That means you might walk onto campus as a biology major, confident that you know it is exactly what you want to study, but you might return your junior year and realize that you've grown to despise biology and that your real passion is in teaching science, not learning it. But there's nothing wrong with that - college is an opportunity to grow, and if that means growing academically then so be it!
6. Change will set you free
I know how hard it can be for some people to change their major. For so many students it becomes an identity - I spent my entire first year of college identifying as a nursing student, introducing myself when relevant as a nursing student, and excitedly telling my whole family that I was going to school for nursing. I felt like I was losing part of my identity that I had just gained. I felt lost.
Looking back, I see all of my past classmates doing their first clinical rotations and all I can think is "Thank God I'm not doing that with my life" (of course no offense to the nursing students, you guys are awesome!) because I know that I would have been miserable had I not pursued my true passion.
College sucks enough as it is with all of the stress, don't let changing your major become a weight on your shoulders that drags you down. Let yourself go undeclared while you find yourself, change your major five times until you find the right one. College is your time, make the best of it!
