While college is arguably the best four years of a person's life, it is also the most stressful. It is expected that college freshmen and sophomores pick one field or subject that they want to pursue for the rest of their lives at just eighteen and nineteen years old. Being overwhelmed with a wide range of majors and a multitude of different career paths is extremely difficult. However, once a student finds their passion in a specific major, the rest of college is more or less smooth sailing.
Growing up, like many other wide-eyed school kids, I bounced between becoming an astronaut, a teacher, a doctor, or the president when I grew up. However, it was not until middle school that I became serious about becoming a doctor. I knew my goals and passions included helping people, having a career in the medical field, and working in a hospital setting. I started researching different kinds of doctors and decided I would be an OB/GYN, an orthopedic surgeon, or a pediatric oncologist.
Unfortunately, as high school approached and began to pass by, I realized that my goals and passions were changing. I still wanted to help people, work in the medical field, and have a hospital career when I was older, but I also started realizing how important it was to me to be able to become a mom and have a family. I also began realizing the huge commitment that becoming a doctor would be.
I give credit to all doctors and medical school students who have dedicated a large portion of their lives to studying and dedicating themselves to others through medicine. After shadowing doctors and surgeons at my local hospital in my senior year of high school, I realized my longterm dreams just did not embrace my lifestyle anymore.
However, this posed a great obstacle. I applied to all of my colleges as a biology major, with the intent of becoming a doctor. Now that I decided being a doctor was not my path, I needed to find a new major, and quickly. I took a multitude of "Career Path" quizzes, researched other medical professions, and looked up just about a million different majors that might interest me. Still, there was nothing that interested me enough to pursue a major or future career in.
In the last few weeks of school before graduation, I recall reading an article about the long road to recovery from brain injuries. Although I knew physical recovery took months, I never realized that many people who suffer from traumatic brain injuries or strokes lose the ability to speak.
I finally found an even greater passion- that I wanted to pursue a career in reteaching patients who obtained a traumatic brain injury how to speak again. With this new path, I would be working in a hospital/medical field and helping people. I also would have time to dedicate myself to a family and be able to begin working faster than if I had become a doctor.
After committing to the University of Delaware, I began looking into programs that would allow me to pursue my goals. After searching and stressing over picking the right major for myself, I found my calling in cognitive science. With this major, I will study psych field, neuroscience, and linguistics.
This major has put me on the path to becoming a speech pathologist and pursuing my goals of helping victims of traumatic brain injuries relearn how to communicate through speech.
After my first week in a linguistics class, during my freshman fall semester, I knew that I was in the right place studying the right major. As the class went more in depth I found myself getting more and more excited about my future. As the next semester approached, I began taking cognitive science classes. As these courses progressed I was assured that I had made the right decision in picking my major.
It was not an easy path, nor was I ever certain it would work out, but choosing to be a cognitive science major at the University of Delaware has enabled me to pursue my true life passions and goals. I am excited about the future an cannot wait to see the endless opportunities I will be given. Picking a major is not an easy task. It takes serious thinking, time, and true understanding of selfhood. However, there is no question that once a student finds their passion in a specific major, the rest of college is more or less smooth sailing.
