Two summers ago I was asked to declare a major, told over and over again that choosing one early can help you get ahead and not fall behind in meeting requirements. I chose the one that I found most interesting at the time, as a high school senior who had not experienced college life yet, who had not felt the impacts of the real world yet, who did not think her major could end in a controversial, but needed job. I loved it, I loved all of the classes and the wheels that made my major’s wheel turn. Now, as my final two years of undergrad approach, I look back on my choice, and all the choices I wish I had made back then. I look what I have done since then, and where I can go with it. I realize now, late in the game I can’t become a biology or chemistry major without being drowned by classes that should have been taken three semesters ago, it would be perhaps manageable to attempt to become a business major of some sort, but with lacrosse and my other extracurricular, some classes would be nearly impossible to take. So, i will have to stick with what I chose a few summers ago, before mass shootings being an every other month thing, before these videos of cops shooting young, black men became all too frequent, but greatly needed to open everyone’s eyes, before I really had time to think.
In the next few years, when I graduate from college, I will have a criminal justice/criminology degree from my small liberal arts college down in Tennessee. I look at my college’s programs and while my program is flourishing and growing, other programs, especially the math and sciences have so much to their disposal, so much pride and accolades that wipe the social sciences away. But I still listen intently, for my professors have valuable, firsthand information that really show the world we the students have chosen to become a part of. At first, the laws, the workings, the background mechanics are shown and taught and memorized, but once that is instilled, we are thrusted into the real world; one full of hate, power, sadness, mistakes, corruption, yet a bit of pride, protection and security. We see the sides of the system others thrust to the side, we hear what we will be told to do once we leave, what we will experience, what we will be a part of whether we like it or not and that the government we are learning to be about is going to be one of the most dangerous ever. Interning with my local police department, I see the hate dished out by those who are pulled over, no matter their color or age, no matter how well the officer is being composed and doing his job without harming or even raising his voice. I applaud this police department, who have not had an incident like those in Dallas, who are not quick to draw, who assume the best from everyone and to continue doing their job when the hate and the bad mistakes of officers hundreds miles away stack against them.
Due to this, to my experience at school, to my experience in my internship, to the world unfolding (all lives matter, but the racial disparity in these shootings, and the sheer amount of black victims does say something), and the media’s involvement, I will stay on my major’s path. I will strive to make a change, to stop the racial gap of those who are arrested, shot, and separated from their families. Gender, race, class and crime have a deep rooted connection with negative side of the system, where we, as a government body, have set those up on the minority side to fail, and we the people, along with help from the future police officers, agents, lawyers, and other worker of the United States of America must come together and fix this, to put a stop in fearing the men in blue, to teaching the right way to act in any given situation, to stop stigmatizing the poor, the minorities, the young and old, females and males and all of those who fall in-between. I chose this major two summers ago, and with everything occurring today, I have feared for the future, I have made second guesses and wish I chose something else, but I know that I did this for a reason; to change the system that has set so many up to fail, and now is the time to take a stand, to vote, to cheer, to yell and scream and take this generations chance to correct our parents, grandparents and ancestors mistakes.
