There are two questions that you will be asked almost everyday in college: what’s your name? And what’s your major? Eventually, answering them becomes second nature. You’ll reply to someone without even realizing what you’re saying.
For me, my freshman year consisted of me replying, “I’m Hailee and I’m a physiology/pre-med major.” As soon as the words “pre-med” are brought up into a conversation, people instantly get excited and ask you what kind of doctor you want to be or where you want to go to medical school or what made you choose this path. I used to have the answers to those questions back in high school when that’s all I ever thought about. It was a rehearsed speech that everyone from my family to my classmates had heard since my sophomore year. That’s who I was and that is where I wanted to go in life.
It seems to be frowned upon in a lot of high schools to not know what you want to do after graduation and the same went for mine. I remember my teachers telling us that on average, students will change their major about three times in their college career. I didn’t want to be one of those people because I wanted to have my entire life planned out by the time I left home. I had a plan.
Then I hit my second semester of college and everything changed. I no longer loved the hard science and math classes. I found myself struggling to keep up attendance and homework in those classes because they no longer interested me. I started to realize that I wasn’t happy with my choice of being a “pre-med” major anymore.
So I decided to change my major. I now had to rehearse an update to my everyday speech, “I’m Hailee and I’m a psychology major.”
Now, people are weird when it comes to psychology. They don’t think it is worthwhile to learn about and they believe there are no future opportunities in the field. The day I changed my major, I called my mom and dad to tell them. Obviously they support me through everything and they have always had my happiness in mind, so they understood why I did it. Other people, not so much. I remember telling extended family and close friends that I was changing my degree path and instantly being shut down. I was told that I wouldn’t find a job with my degree and that I was taking the “easy” way out of college. I was also told by my friends that I was only making this major change because of the person I was in a relationship with, which, if anyone knows me, is so far from the truth. Most of those “close friends” don’t even talk to me anymore. I guess they didn’t understand that I wasn’t dropping out of school or ruining my life, I was just trying to make myself happy.
Learning about psychology is so much fun and there are so many opportunities for me to create a career with my education. I have had the opportunity to participate in ongoing research here on campus and have even learned about larger research projects that are in effect at the national level. I’ve learned the basics of mental health and how I can help someone when they need it. I’ve learned about the brain and how complex each structure is, but I have also learned that scientists and researchers still don’t know everything about the brain and that new findings are made every day. No one can tell me that my major is boring or obsolete because I see how it contributes to society every single day.
I firmly believe that everyone should find something they are passionate about and do everything in their power to pursue it. Psychology is my passion; it is what I love. I know that if I hadn’t made the change when I did, I would still be suffering through classes that I did not enjoy. I’d still be reaching for goals that I didn’t set for myself. I still wouldn’t be happy.
“On average, a college student will change their major three times throughout their college career.” So why was me, changing my major once, such a big deal? To this day, I still don’t know. I just know that I am much happier than I was a year and a half ago.