For the first 10 years of my life, I wanted to be a veterinarian. As an animal lover, I thought this career would fit my passion and promptly decided that I would choose this as my college major and go to vet school after I graduated. However, a few years later, I decided I wanted to go into physical therapy and help athletes to recover from their injuries. After discovering the requirements for a degree in physical therapy on top of the amount of time and money I needed to spend on attending graduate school, I decided the field wasn't for me. Additionally, I hated science.
Before the idea of college was even a gleam in my eye, I felt like I already needed to make decisions about my future.
As young freshmen in high school, we were expected to have an idea of what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. The college process essentially began the following year as we discussed college tours and how to choose a school that works for us. With junior year came college visits and narrowing down on our options so we wouldn't have to fill out 20 college applications in the fall. Senior year brought acceptance letters and questions of what we planned to major in. I was currently interested in broadcast journalism and enrolled as a Journalism major at the University of Kentucky.
As I experienced my first college journalism to class, it was not what I expected.
It was a struggle to come to this realization. I learned that there were only so many careers a journalist could pursue was unsure if I wanted that type of structure. Though many of my classmates thoroughly enjoyed the journalism class we took our first semester of freshman year, I was on the opposite end. Panicked, I set up an appointment with my academic advisor, who reassured me that switching my college major was nothing short of common. He explained that many college students will end up switching their major at least once during their education, and I was lucky to have recognized this within myself at an early point. Because I enjoyed the College of Communications and Information, I was provided with other majors in the same college as my initial Journalism major.
The switch from one major to another was intimidating at first, but I knew it was the right choice.
As of this semester, I am majoring in Integrated Strategic Communications and have enjoyed every minute of it. I now get to focus more on advertising and public relations, which still includes my passion for using my voice that I discovered through broadcast journalism in high school. I have even recognized more academic strengths within myself because of this switch. By switching my major, I found my true fit in college and feel grateful that I chose to take a risk in switching my major as a freshman. This experience taught me that it is okay to not know what you want to do with the rest of your life at 18 years old. It is more important to test which subject areas you like and dislike by trying out different classes. Your college experience should not be rushed, but it is the time to find out what you are most passionate about instead. If that means you should switch your major so you can pursue what you love to do, it is well worth the switch.
