There are plenty of questions that I had upon entering college: What classes do I need to take? What can I do with my major? How am I going to afford all of this? What’s the damn point of it all?
Truth is, even now that I’m forcing the last semester I need down my throat, I still have questions. Some have just morphed into others.
One thing I hear a lot, as an upperclassman and also as someone who works in the student industry is: I don’t know what I want to major in.
Good! Nobody really knows what they want to do when they first start college anyway. When I started back in 2013, I thought I was dead-set on majoring in English and eventually becoming a teacher. As the semesters passed, and I was trying to force all of my Gen Eds into a couple semesters in the hopes to move on to the classes required by my field, I realized I wanted to do so much more than what I declared.
I wanted to be an American Sign Language Interpreter.
I wanted to study criminal psychology.
I wanted to learn about mythology.
I wanted to explore the world of classical art.
I still want to do all of those things, but I’m limiting myself; because if I had the opportunity to, I would double major and minor, and I’d be here forever. My point is that it’s okay to want more than one thing. Some people go into a field that will make them the most money, others go into something because it’s been in their family for generations, and then some people major in things because they have a curiosity about them, or a sense of devotion to that subject. Maybe it’s none of these, or maybe it’s a combination of all of them, but that should in no way make you uneasy.
My opinion? If you don’t know what you want, then get a taste of everything. Go as undeclared for a couple of semesters and take some classes that sound fun. Figure out what you want or need and then go from there.
Isn’t that what they say during orientation?
College is for growing. So get out there and grow.