Coming into college, I had a general idea of what I wanted to study. Many people thought I had my life planned out then, but I really was just banking on my love for reading to save me as an English major. I didn’t have a lot of gen ed courses left when I came in my freshman year, so I was able to kind of dive into my major.
Even though I was working in my major, I didn’t necessarily feel like I was in the right place. I guess college is where you are supposed to find out who you are and what you are truly passionate about. Since I came in thinking I already knew these things, it got rough when I was doing the worst in my favorite subject. I was becoming discouraged. But I didn’t want to give up on English so quickly.
I tried a bunch of different courses in the English department, going out of order from what is normally recommended. This might have been a bad choice, but I think it helped me find my love for the subject again. Also, by taking the backward approach, I learned that freshman me was on the right track.
Writing has always been interesting to me, but I’ve never seen myself as much of a writer. Granted, taking a fiction writing course and a composition course helped me become a little more comfortable with writing outside of the traditional research essay, but I definitely wasn’t the strongest writer there. The courses I am taking this semester have recently made something click for me.
It might be the fact that I’m taking more publication-based courses, or it is because I can see clearly how what I’m learning connects to possible jobs. Either way, this semester, though one of the more stressful semesters of my college experience, has made me feel the most content I have felt in a long time. Even dabbling in my studio art minor has caused me to almost love going to class, which is something I never saw coming.
This is the feeling I have heard about over the years from various graduates. I just didn’t believe it would happen for me until it did. Especially considering how this year has gone otherwise, it is refreshing to have something good come out of this year. I hope others get to feel this too at some point because it definitely makes college feel worth it.