When I first arrived at BU, I was an English major on a pre-law track. Simple enough.
A few weeks later, after actually looking at the required courses for a B.A. in English, I decided that I could definitely do more. So, I put myself down as a double major: English and psychology. They both fit in with my career aspirations of being a lawyer: English would give me valuable writing and communication skills, while psych would help with the trial science part of things (I watch CBS’s Bull too much), jury selection, and all that good stuff.
Then my mom expressed her interest in me pursuing a subject that didn’t entail only soft skills. She’s an accountant, so she was also big on me taking finance or business classes, and while that didn’t appeal to me, I did like economics. That interest, coupled with my parents’ insistence that I learn something that wasn’t strictly humanities (my mom studied accounting and my dad has a B.S. in physics and was a software engineer, so, unfortunately, they pushed STEM on me a little too much), made me sign up to be an economics minor.
Whenever I tell people that I’m double majoring with a minor, people are surprised. They either respond with “wow!” or skeptical nods or, “Are you going to graduate in 4 years?”
And, on paper, it’s not impossible! I went to my advising appointment earlier this month with my tentative schedule and my advisor nodded enthusiastically, reassuring me that if I’m the type of person to make color-coded schedules and 4-year plans, I’d be able to double major with a minor just fine, especially since I have a few AP credits.
The problem is twofold: on one hand, I have my major/minor requirements, which aren’t excessive, but I also have to make sure I’m completing my Hub essential capacities and I have to deal with the 4-semesters-of-a-language CAS requirement (which sucks and I am 100% going to cram for the French SAT test this summer and pray that I can make that dreadful foreign language requirement disappear).
The second issue is completely internal: I want to do even more. I have such a strong interest in things, and I’ve always been a jack-of-all-trades, and I can’t help but somewhat lowkey love all the subjects and classes I’m taking (except for Calculus II, I’m an idiot. What kind of English/psych major takes the Calc II class that’s full of engineering and math majors?? Me, apparently).
When I went to the Major & Minor Fair a while back, I met this College of Communications professor and I absolutely loved him. He teaches Public Relations (and I was nearly about to major in P.R. and journalism when I first came to school!) and he invited me to sit in on his classes whenever (though I’ll admit, I haven’t been able to make his 8 AM lectures yet).
I have a tendency to love everything.
After being the Editor-in-Chief of my high school’s online news magazine and yearbook, I fell in love with journalism. As a member of the P.R. Committee in CAS Student Government right now, I’m super into marketing and advertising. When I took AP Environmental Science in high school, I even briefly considered pursuing that.
People tend to assume that my double major and minor with a pre-law track means that I have everything so planned out and that I’m very decided and sure about my future but, I think it’s just the opposite. To me, liking everything is just like being undecided.
Sure, I’ve narrowed it down to humanities and social sciences (none of that STEM for me, please and thank you) but there are still sooooo many options to choose from. Most people use their dream career to help them decide what to study and, for the longest time, I wanted to be a corporate lawyer.
And while I still kind of do, I also think that careers like writing for a magazine, copywriting for a company or ad agency, or being a P.R. consultant would be fulfilling and suitable for me.
In other words, I just don’t know. But, that’s probably fine.
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