When I first applied for college back in 2014, I knew what field I want to study and what I wanted to do after college. The major I wanted to study was criminal justice, because I wanted to become a police officer. Being a police officer was my dream job, ever since I was in 8th grade.
In February 2015, I remember talking about it to my mom, but she wasn't happy about my future. She didn’t want me to put my life on the line or get shot by a criminal. As for my mom, she wanted me to become a nurse, because 3 reasons
- She's a nurse
- It's a great field
- She wanted me to follow her path
I agreed with my mom while she was talking to me about having a career in nursing, but I refused to be a nurse. Therefore, I stayed with criminal justice.
Four months late,r after my orientation, I had a feeling I would have a terrible career in criminal justice or won't be able to like it, so I decided to change my major to Sports Journalism, because I love talking about sports and watching them. Therefore, I emailed the journalism advisor named Brad Longwell about changing my major to Sports Journalism.
Me: “Hello Longwell, my name is Henry Lyon and I am an Incoming Freshman and majoring Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. I want to email you today, because I want to change my major to Sports Journalism and be a Cronkite student. Do I have to wait until school starts or can I change my major anytime?”
Longwell replied: “Hi Henry, I'm very happy that you're going to be a Sun Devil this Fall! In order to change your major to Sports Journalism, you have to take 4 non-journalism classes and maintain a 3.0 by the end of the semester. So if I were you, I would wait until the end of the spring semester to change, if it's alright with you.”
After I read his words, I was a little upset because I wanted to change my major as soon as possible, instead of waiting until the end of the semester. Therefore, I stayed with criminal justice for the Fall semester in 2015.
During the fall semester, I had to focus on Philosophy 101, Sociology 101, Intro to Criminal Justice 100, and English 101, in order to get into Sports Journalism and Cronkite. They were the non-journalism classes, except for English 101. Longwell let me take English 101 as one of my non-journalism classes. All I had to do is to get a 3.0 and I’m in! That's like making the basketball team.
Anyway, I passed all of them and made the standard. Although, I decided to wait until the end of the spring semester to change my major.
When I was returning to Pennsylvania for Winter break, my mom picked me up at the airport. In the car, I had a conversation with her about my semester and changing my major to Sports Journalism.
She asked
“Why Sports Journalism?”
Me: "Because I love talking about sports and want to become an ESPN Analyst.”
Mom: "I hope I see you on TV one day."
One month later, back in Arizona, I went to my first CSRD’s (Center For The Study Of Race And Democracy) event ever, when they were hosting a movie night and we were watching a documentary called “Slavery By Another Name” at the nursing building on the Downtown Phoenix campus. It was their first event of the semester. While I was watching the documentary, I was shocked what I was watching, especially how the characters tell their stories to us.
After watching the film, I was thinking to myself
“How come out of all of the history teachers I had back in middle school and high school didn't teach us about this stuff?”
I've never learned about Black History throughout my life, except Black History Month. Back in secondary school and elementary school, they taught us about White History and World History, which I'm not against or hate. However, why couldn't we learn about our culture or Black History? That's why I want to become a history teacher and teach the students about Black History.
Anyway, I went back to my dorm room, went to the ASU website to see if they have a major that has to do with Black History and I found African and African American studies on the list.
So I made a final decision to make an appointment at the School of Social Transformation building in Tempe and change my major to African and African American Studies and gave up on Sports Journalism.
