Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but college is rough.
In addition to draining your bank account every semester for overly-priced textbooks, chugging oceans of coffee to make it through a brutal 8:00 a.m. lecture, and taking that first leap into adulthood, you are also expected to have your mind made up about what you want to spend the rest of your life doing in time to graduate in four years.
Is that even possible? Yes, for some it actually is. There are people who have the power to not only to decide something, but to stick to said decision.
Yet, there I was, struggling to come up with what my sixty-year plan for after college would be before my TOPS ran out. No pressure there.
Not that I feel the need to justify my indecisive mind, but for those of you who feel hopeless and lost, here are some reasons why it is 100% completely and entirely OKAY to change your mind about your major. Even if you do happen to do so two, three, or even eleven times:
1. The rest of your life is hopefully going to be a very, very long time.
Thinking about doing the same thing or working at the same job for the rest of your life can seem monotonous, intimidating even. Which brings me to my next point…
2. There are SO many options.
I started college with aspirations of being a nurse. Nothing seemed more appealing to me than wearing scrubs and being the most influential part of someone's experience in the hospital. (Nurses are the best) But then came the idea of medical school and speech pathology, just to name a few.
3. In addition to changing your mind, you will also change as a person.
Your perception on many things will change in college, even in the first semester. With a new found perspective, your ideas on what will contribute to a fulfilling life will also change, which in many cases will help you figure out that you actually picked the worst possible major for yourself.
For example, I realized I hate hospitals, so I bid farewell to my medical field dreams.
4. College is about doing what you want to do.
The classes in college are based on your personal tastes and preference. Just because you came from four generations of attorneys does not mean your fate has been etched in stone. Choose a major that doesn't make getting hit by a truck seem more appealing than having to sit through another lecture. Don’t make decisions based on someone else’s opinions; you’ll regret it later.
5. You will realize that your expectations might not be realistic.
During my infamous “I want to go to medical school” phase, there came a point that I convinced myself I would never become an asset to society without M.D. embroidered behind my name on a white lab coat. I genuinely thought that I was just going to breeze through undergrad and binge-watch Grey’s Anatomy until the medical school acceptance letter arrived in the mail.
Wrong.
I became so overwhelmed with school that I started skipping class. I figured that avoiding my problems entirely, causing them to pile up and become unavoidable, would be a good idea.
Wrong again.
6. Everyone is different.
Education is not a one-size, fits all situation. Comparison kills. Albert Einstein once said, “But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that is it stupid.” Take this into consideration: if you are failing all of your classes and begining to think you’d be better off selling weight loss
wraps and makeup to your old high school classmates on Facebook rather than wasting your time getting a degree. You probably just need to change your major.
Bottom line is, change your mind as many time as it takes until you are happy. And please, by all means, do NOT let other people influence your decision or make you feel bad about changing your mind, even if you do so several times. If it helps, take all of their opinions and form them into a big, mental, middle finger and just do whatever you want. At the end of the day, all you have is yourself.
And in case you’re wondering, my latest switch was making a complete 180 into the world of accounting.
I’ve never been happier.
