At the end of my freshman year, I knew two things for certain: 8:30 a.m. classes were created by the devil himself, and more importantly, I was in the wrong major. The first dilemma was easy enough to take care of (night classes are a gift from above), but how was I supposed to switch majors after a full year of classes? For reasons that seemed completely sound at the time, I had declared myself as History/Elementary Education early on, but as the year came to a close, I couldn’t help but regret my rash decision.
It honestly seemed to make sense at the time: I didn’t want to enter into college as undeclared, plus I had always enjoyed working with children. Why not just call it a day and choose to base my career off of that?
It took me longer than it should have to realize that I was in the wrong place, probably because I didn’t take an Education course until the spring semester. There were signs, however, that I should have picked up on even before then. Friends and family would ask me about the history classes I was taking, and I never really had an enthusiastic answer for them. “They’re fine,” I would say, “Nothing special." I'd then change the topic by going into a lengthy discussion about my English classes and all the amazing books we were reading for them. Looking back, I should’ve realized it much sooner, but I think a part of me didn’t want to admit that I had made a mistake.
It wasn’t until midway through my first Education course that I realized how oblivious I had been. I was surrounded by fellow Education students, but the difference between us was that they were actually passionate about the major. They talked excitedly about how they would decorate their classrooms and what grade they most wanted to teach. They couldn’t wait to start their lives as teachers, whereas I could never really picture myself in front of the classroom. Everything hit me all at once: I didn’t want this, not one bit of it.
I began to panic; what was the smart move here? I could continue to study a subject that would prepare me for a profession I had no desire to enter into, or I could completely turn my world upside down. And if I did change my major, how could I possibly catch up? Even though it was still early on in my college career, I had already begun to build a foundation, and I wasn’t sure if it was entirely wise to throw it all away.
After several anxiety-filled weeks, I finally decided to throw out my old major and choose something that I knew I would love: English. This decision was by no means easy, and there were times building up to the beginning of the semester when I was sure that I had just made the stupidest decision of my college career. But once classes began, I realized how stupid all of my concerns were, because the biggest mistake I could have made was staying somewhere I was unhappy.
It’s not going to be easy -- you’ll be playing catch-up for a little bit, especially at first. Don’t let that deter you though; anything worth doing won’t come easily. The thought of changing your major can be scary, but the thought of paying an enormous amount of tuition for a degree you despise, is even scarier. Be bold and make the choice that is right for you.
