I have always known I wanted to be a teacher. My mom was an elementary school teacher and for as long as I can remember if someone asked me “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, that’s what I would say. I’m not sure if it’s because I wanted to be like my mom or if it’s because I admired what she did, I just always remember having the same response and it rarely changing. In my 5^th grade yearbook they asked this very question so that they could write the answer underneath our names, if you look now mine says 2^nd grade teacher. The only thing that ever changed about my answer was the type of teacher I wanted to be. First, it was elementary school, then I got into middle school and realized I had a love for English and it changed to middle school English teacher. Once I got into tenth grade I fell in love with Chemistry and actually ended up coming into college as a Secondary Education General Science major. Now the journey of what kind of teacher I wanted to be does not stop there. I know everybody has that struggle when going into college about what they want to major in and a lot of people go in undeclared. It may sound like since I have always known I wanted to be a teacher that this part of college was easy for me, plot twist, it was not. As I said I came in as a Secondary Ed General Science Major, but with the direction this is heading I’m sure you can guess that is not my major anymore.

I am a Sophomore at York College of Pennsylvania and my current major is Secondary Education English. It was such a long road getting to this major and I can’t tell you how many times I questioned the choices I was making. I have a hard time with change and since my Sophomore year of high school I had my heart set on being a science teacher. I had told everybody this was what I wanted to do, my friends my family, past teachers and I always got the same response “wow chemistry, that sounds hard, good for you”. Later I would realize that I was afraid if I switched my major to English, people wouldn’t have the same response when I told them my major, but then I came to the conclusion that what people think doesn’t matter as much as how you feel personally. My first ever semester of college I was so ready to become a science teacher. I came in knowing that I wasn’t the best at math, but I told myself I would find some way to work through it. Soon enough, I realized I was in way over my head. First semester I took Pre - calculus and as I said I am not good at math so this class was a real struggle from the beginning. I soon realized if I was this bad at Pre – calculus, how was I supposed to take Calculus and pass? This made me start to think, but still I didn’t want to quit yet, so I came into my second semester as a Secondary Ed General Science major as well. This time actually taking Chemistry which I loved learning about in high school. Honestly, I did well in Chemistry, but I suffer from anxiety and I realized I was dreading going to lab every week. What if I messed up? What if I couldn’t get the lab right? It was giving me more and more stress until I finally realized if I can’t get through my first lab what happens when I have to take two labs in a semester for the rest of my college career. I immediately started to think that maybe I should change my major, but I pushed it to the back of my mind.

In the last few weeks of my second semester of Freshman year I found myself looking up different majors and what they entailed on the YCP website. I even ventured into non education majors but soon realized I have always wanted to be a teacher this is just another bump in the road of what kind of teacher I want to be. I ended up doing a little soul searching and everything always came back to English. I would read the required classes for the Secondary Education English major and just feel so sad I wouldn’t be able to take them. I have always loved to read and write and I have always loved theater so when I picked science my family and friends were shocked. I picked science because I loved chemistry in high school and I was stuck on the fact that it is what I had chosen, I didn’t want to be one of those people who changed their minds because I was afraid of what other people would think and I was afraid of making the wrong decision.

Deciding to change from Science to English is one of the best decisions I made here at York. I officially switched around May of my second semester of Freshman year right before scheduling classes. The feeling of relief that washed over me when I scheduled those English classes was indescribable. I will always love high school chemistry, I just don’t think I can personally handle the Science and Math courses I would have had to take to get there. If you’re struggling in the major you have now like I was or are just not happy and are thinking of changing, talk to your advisor. I know my advisor helped a lot in this decision, talking through scenarios and what would really make me happy at York. Talk to your friends and family too, they can offer you support and a helping hand, I know mine did. You may be scared to change your major because of what other people may think or because you don’t like change and don’t want to go back on something you already committed yourself to, but it’s really ok to change your major. Be your own person, do what you think is right for yourself and everything will fall right into place.