Major Change

There are times when you are absolutely terrified of what might happen in the future. Making huge choices that most definitely will affect the path you go down can be scary. Sometimes the right choice for you seems wrong to the rest of the world, but you just have to go for it.

In the middle of spring semester and almost always around class sign ups, everyone is talking about declaring a major. It seems like everyone else has it together. Your roommate has always wanted to be a biology major and that senior who sits behind you in history claims that she's had the same major since she entered college. There you are right in the middle of it listening to everyone else confidently speak about their life ambitions. You feel totally lost.

Or maybe you don't. Maybe you have always known what you've wanted to do but it's risky. Your parents or friends might say "don't major in x, y, or z because you'll never get a job". And part of you wants to listen to every word they say, because have they ever steered you wrong in the past? No, for the most part they have only given helpful advice and it's gotten you all this way so why stop listening now? Plus, your best friend has an older brother who knows someone who has a girlfriend who majored in x and she's 30 years old and still unemployed.

Well maybe you know you're good at "x" and you think it's the right choice for you. What do you do? Do you listen to your parents, friends, or the man at the bus stop who tells you to choose something more practical? Or do you bite the bullet and take a chance?

If it'll make you happier in the long run, do it. If you're currently forcing yourself to major in chemistry but the mere site of the periodic table makes you queasy, what's going to happen when you get a land a job teaching chemistry and you have to stare at that big old poster on the wall all day? Or what if you major in accounting and all day you're crunching numbers to the point of nausea when all you want to do is be creative?

It seems like there are no jobs out there for us creatives, but that's not true. If you consider yourself a creative person who's to say you can't create your own job? And if that's not your cup of tea, how many thousands of companies in the world need designers? The possibilities are endless.

I believe that if you really want something you can make it happen. Now excuse me while I make my way to the registrar's office to take my own advice...