Have you ever sat in a classroom and thought to yourself that it wasn’t the right class for you? Have you ever thought that all your dreams might possibly not be your dreams anymore? Also, did it leave you to think that you were stuck and not allowed to change anything? Actually, it’s more than OK to change.

So ever since you were a little kid, you had your mind made up of what occupation you were going to attain in the future. You might have wanted to become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, fireman, police officer, or even a dentist. There was nothing that could have possibly stopped you from pursuing your dream. As you go through grade school and hit your teenage years you begin to realize that change has occurred. You start finding new interests, and it’s almost like you have become a new person. Whether it be a change in your taste of music, TV shows, sports, or even school subjects, some things were different. Whenever you start high school you begin to set your focus on other things such as AP classes, Friday night football games, relationships, friendships, and even who is going to be your date to prom. Your mind begins to drift away from what you want to do in the future because you already made up your mind as a kid. You never sit and worry about what would happen if you changed your major later on. In high school, the next big decision is deciding where you are going to attend college. You have to find the perfect school that is going to make your dream come true. You begin to look into schools that offer your degree and basing your decisions around that.

Once you discover the perfect school, nothing changes the feeling you get when you receive your first acceptance letter, knowing that everything is falling into place. Everything is going the way you planned since you were six years old. You finally go to pre-enrollment and sign up for the perfect classes that are going to pave the way to your degree. Of course, it all sets in once you move into your first dorm room. Classes start and you think that everything is going perfectly until you realize that maybe this really isn’t how you pictured it. You’re sitting in class one day and you notice that this is not the path you want to take any more. Feelings and emotions vein to overwhelm you and you feel as if there is nowhere to turn. You begin to tell yourself that if you change your major now, you’ll have wasted time and have to start back over. The truth is, it's OK to go a different direction.

Changing your major doesn’t mean you are giving up, failing your six-year-old self, or even starting over. It just means you have grown up and you have had a change of interest. Going to college is about finding yourself and realizing what you really want in life. You might not become a doctor like you had planned, but you are becoming the person that you are supposed to become. Life throws curve balls and changing the plans is not always a bad thing. When you pursue your dreams, you are supposed to pursue personal happiness as well and if you aren’t happy with your original plan then it just means there is something else out there for you. It is not time wasted because if you would have never spent the time figuring out it's something you don’t want to do, then you would never get to spend the rest of your time doing what you truly want to do. Deciding a major when you’re young or old doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone, it means that you are putting a title on the road you’re taking. If that major doesn’t make you happy or even give you something to be passionate about, it just means that road wasn’t for you.