As you already know from the title of this article, I am a psychology major. I am in my second year of my bachelors program and I love every minute of it (well maybe not those high stress minutes during exams...) I came to college dreaming of being a doctor. For most of my life that was what I wanted to be. I like to think of myself as a caring individual and I wanted to be able to help people who were sick to make their lives, as well as their families lives a little better.
My major during my freshman fall semester was biology. I loved my biology class, my precalculus class (yes I just said I loved a math class, oh the horror!), and every class accept chemistry. Chemistry is my kryptonite 100%. So that Biology major just didn't work out...
Then during my second semester I took general psychology. I honestly remember taking it because it fulfilled one of my general education requirements and fit into my schedule. It ended up being my favorite class, like of all time. I loved the professor, the material, and I loved asking questions about it all. This is just the baseline of why I became a psychology major...
Growing up I knew a lot of people who dealt with mental illness, behavioral problems, and depression. It didn't matter whether it was my family, friends, or someone at school, I was almost always curious to talk to them and find out what was wrong. Now to some people I am sure that may just seem like I was trying to be nosey, but in all reality I was doing then what I would one day want to do without even knowing it.
Mental illness seems to run in my family. I never really understood what mental illness was until my general psych class. There are so many different kinds and each has its own treatment. I really wanted to pick apart my experiences growing up to see if my family and friends diagnoses really seemed to fit what was going on. I am now taking abnormal psychology where I am learning all about what abnormality is. When they say that nobody is normal, oh my goodness are they right.
Okay so now to my point of this whole thing. Since I wanted to help sick people get better, and since I have been around mental illness all my life, AND since I absolutely loved my general psychology class, I made the decision to be a psych major. I really want to help patients and their families understand what they are going through. I want to help people understand the things I didn't when I was growing up.
I am so fortunate to have found a subject/ field that I immensely enjoy and one in which I will have the chance to help people like I have always wanted to.
