"Don't think of it like you are giving up something, think of it like you are removing an obstacle from your path towards your goal."

A few days ago my mom's college friend, Dolly, came to visit with her family in Virginia. For as long as I can remember I have viewed her as a wise, God-fearing, kind woman with a beautiful family. We spent the day playing with the dogs, eating a delicious meal at the local diner, and catching up on each other's lives. Naturally, the conversation turned to my first year at college and what I was thinking about majoring in. I told them Anthropology and Human Biology and Music. I also expressed how I was on the fence about my double major.

After a long conversation with Dolly about why I was unsure if I wanted to continue my Music major, my thoughts started to line up in my head like they had never done before. Embarrassingly, I started to cry. I know that I have only finished one year of college and that this dilemma really isn't that bad when you look at the big picture but being an Anthro Human Bio and Music double major has been the way I have identified myself for the past year. Unfortunately, my first year at college wasn't the easiest. I took difficult classes and threw myself into lots of time-consuming extracurriculars. I was overwhelmed and began to feel burdened by all I had taken on. But I was passionate about everything I was doing so I thought I would be okay.

As a senior in high school, I remember being apprehensive about studying music academically because it had always been a passion and a hobby that I loved. I was scared that if I chose to study it in college, the in-depth nature of college academics would make me hate music. Dolly reminded me that God gave me a gift for singing and that I shouldn't be so quick to throw that away. However, if using that gift in this way wasn't enriching my life then that wasn't God's plan for me. God may be calling me somewhere else.

I opened up to Dolly about how studying music had been a source of a lot of stress and unhappiness. She listened and reasoned and made me feel like all these thoughts that had been running around in my head could find peace. I decided to drop the music major and minor instead.

Like Dolly said I am "removing an obstacle from the path towards my goal." That goal is a career in Physical Therapy or at least something in Sports Medicine/Health and Fitness. While music will always remain a passion of mine, I am excited to begin loving it again for all the reasons I fell in love with it in the first place. It makes me feel confident, creative, and brings me closer to like-minded people.

Thank you, Dolly, for your inspiring words of comfort and wisdom. I am excited to begin my sophomore year on the same path but with a clearer vision of where I am headed.