I started my freshman year at the University of Iowa, planning to major in English and psychology and minor in philosophy. As a freshman at orientation, I remember a speaker telling us that the average student changes their major two times. Surely that will not be me, I thought, confident in the fact that I already knew what I wanted in life and my plans for the future. But little did I really know back then as freshman.
Literature and writing have always been great pleasures of mine, so it only seemed fitting that I major in English. I also planned to specialize in the creative writing track because I wanted to be a writer and understood the importance of continuously writing and learning more about the field. However, even though I knew I wanted to be a writer, I realized I could not depend on a career in writing, and so I planned to be a professor and researcher in psychology. I had always found the mind and brain to be fascinating subjects. I read books and watched documentaries on the brain and figured that psychology would be fun to learn about and later teach and complete research on.
However, after taking an elementary psychology class, I realized the field did not live up to what I expected it to be. In class I did not like the simplifications put on complicated subjects and the generalizations psychology made about certain types of people and situations. I was also bothered when the psychology class, a class in the social sciences, directly contradicted a neurobiology class I was taking at the time. The neurobiology class was a fascinating class rooted in science and evidence, and I realized psychology as a whole could not incorporate as many hard facts as neurobiology since some claims are very had to test in psychology.
At the same time, I participated as a subject in psychology research experiments, and I was able to see what a potential future career for me would like if I decided to enter this field. Participating in the research experiments confirmed that psychology was not for me. The experiments I participated in seemed worthless to me or were experiments that had already been done in one form or another. One experiment would show me either a photograph of a starving child or a cute puppy. Right after this photo, I would be shown a Chinese character and would have to record my emotions as either good or bad. Now obviously as a participant I could have expected that they might want to see if the photos interpreted how I viewed the Chinese symbol, which is never a good thing when a participant might expect what the study is about. In addition, I honestly had no opinion about the Chinese characters one way or another. I could never decide if it looked bad or good to me because they did not look either way; they simply looked like plain symbols.
When I reflected over this experiment and others, I thought to myself, what was the purpose of these experiments? Why are we funding experiments like these when we could be funding experiments that are working on the cure for Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s? And this is when I realized, I would not be a researcher and professor in psychology. While there are plenty of psychology experiments that have been done in the past that I believe contributed something to the world, I got the sense that many of the current ones are not doing the same.
I decided that I was going to major in neurobiology because I knew I could contribute something to the world and have a more fulfilling career. I also knew that I found the brain to be more fascinating because it provides evidence as to what happens in the mind. After taking a neurobiology class during my first semester that I absolutely loved, I knew this was the field for me. However, the neurobiology major at Iowa required a lot of credits, and I realized I could not fit in an English major. Instead, I found something better: a certificate in writing. This writing certificate seemed even better than the English major in some ways because it involved writing classes that taught you how to write, in addition to fun, creative ones. I also realized I could not minor in philosophy, which was not too big of a deal to me. I did not really know anything about philosophy and only wanted to minor in it because it seemed like a interesting subject that involved deep thinking, something I enjoy. (Funny enough, I ended up taking a philosophy class at Michigan and hated it, so I guess it is a good thing that I did not pursue philosophy).
As a neurobiology major at UIowa, it would be awhile before I could take more specialized classes on the biology of the brain. Neurobiology was essentially offered as a biology major with a specialization in neurobiology. This was not appealing to me, so out of curiosity I began looking at neurobiology majors at other schools to see what they offered. When I realized they offered actual neuroscience majors that strongly focused on the biology of the brain for most of the coursework, I realized I did not want to stay where I was. These schools also offered really creative electives on the brain, such as Neurobiology of Sexual & Aggressive Behavior. One of these schools was the University of Michigan.
Before I transferred to Michigan, though, I began realizing that a career in neuroscience as a researcher may not be exactly what I want. When applying to other colleges, I looked at the researchers in the neuroscience departments and realized that it was only every few years that a new development was made, usually very small and which could be seen as insignificant to an organ as vast and undiscovered as the brain.
In addition, I realized that part of doing research is applying extensively for grants, on top of all the work put in at the lab. There is always uncertainty over whether not there will be any funding, and I did not like knowing that I would have to constantly apply for grants with a possibility that I could not continue my research.
I also became friends with my neurobiology professor at Iowa, and it seemed like as a researcher he and his lab put tons of hours and hard work into the research. Not to say that hard work and long hours put into something is a bad thing, but I started to get the sense that research would not be as rewarding as it needed to be in order for me to want to designate a career in it, especially when only minimal discovery would happen every few years. I could not imagine myself being stuck in a lab all day long and only having a small outcome at the end of a couple years. Not to say that outcome would not be important in the long run. I cannot be grateful enough to those who research the brain; however, for me, I just do not believe I would have enjoyed it and been satisfied, even though I still had and have a strong love for the brain.
This then led me not knowing what to major in. I thought I would still want to be in the sciences but just not as a researcher. I then met with my counselor my second semester of Iowa to discuss other majors and possible careers to go into. This led to me consider public health. Public health encompasses preventing a wide variety of issues from happening in the first place. I imagined having a job focused on the administrative and organizational level in a company or governmental organization that involved public health.
When I transferred to Michigan as a sophomore, I was considering either public health or international studies, since I was interested in how other countries interacted with one another and found the description of the courses in the international studies major to be interesting. I could also imagine myself living abroad for my career, so international studies seemed even more likely. When I took my first public health class at Michigan, I realized the field was not for me and that I really did not have enough interest in the subject. This led me to believe that international studies really was meant for me. I also planned on minoring in modern Greek because I am Greek and eventually want to become fluent in the language. It all seemed like it was coming together since modern Greek and international studies went hand in hand as majors.
Yet, when a friend of mine told me she was majoring in creative writing, I suddenly thought how lucky she was and how amazing it must be to have that major. Later I was talking to one of my professors, and I was telling her about how much I loved English and writing and that if I could major in anything, it would be that. We then had a long discussion where she encouraged me to major in what I love because having a certain major will not hold you back from what you want to do in life. That is when I became free and when I realized that I could finally major in what I loved.
I decided that I would major in English and hopefully along the creative writing track if I am accepted. Deciding to major in English led me to pursue what I really want for my career: a career in writing and publishing. I want to be a writer, but I also plan on starting a company that helps writers in every stage they may be in. This led me to the minor in entrepreneurship, which will teach me the skills needed to make this a reality. I am still keeping my modern Greek minor, as I love the language and do want to become fluent. I was also considering minoring in international studies since some of the classes seemed interesting, although now I am thinking about minoring in linguistics. I do not know if I will like this subject, but I plan to take a course in linguistics in the fall to help me decide if this is something I also want to pursue. In case my dreams of a writer and owning a business do not workout (although I will always be a writer even if not as as my career), I will become an English professor, where I would create fun classes, engage with students, and share our love of literature. My plans for deciding to major in what I love, English, will help me pursue a career that I love as well. I guess I should have just sticked to what I love. Although, by experiencing this journey, I have learned a lot, such as it that it is okay to be flexible and change my major. I was able to discover that I truly am making the right choice with my major.
Photos Courtesy of: Dan Pontefract, School for Writers, Building a Better World News, Samsung Wallpapers, religionnews.com, Bellingham High School.