When I was graduating high school, I felt like all of my other peers knew exactly what they wanted to do in life except me. I would make things up when anyone asked me because I was too afraid to say, “I don’t know.”
I went to my college orientation as undecided and before classes started I decided I wanted to be a Software Engineering major with a Marketing minor. When I began classes in Software Engineering, I really enjoyed it until the pandemic hit my second semester. When we first got sent home my professors were not teaching and were just giving out assignments. I am very afraid of failure so when I saw that we could drop classes without penalty my SE class and lab were both dropped. I also already had my doubts about software engineering because I was only doing it for the future salary.
That same semester I had decided to take a public speaking class, which was one of the communication major requirements just in case I wanted to change my major. I ended up loving the class and just in time for Fall registration I was ready to be a journalism major. I loved writing and interviewing so I thought it would be the perfect fit. So I switched to Journalism with a minor in Software Engineering since I did love coding.
However, once I started taking journalism classes I realized that me being successful depended on someone else wanting to talk to me and give me the information needed for a story. This was a bit too stressful for me and after learning about writing press releases I decided that Public Relations might be a much better fit for me. I also decided to drop the Software Engineering minor and switch back to a Marketing minor since it seemed like a better pairing.
Even though I finally found the perfect major, I still changed my minor once more. I realized that Marketing was going to involve math and I was tired of math. Since I am thinking about going to law school, I decided that minoring in Political Science would be perfect for me. This is the major and minor that I have decided to stick with.
I said all of this to say that if you are just starting out at college, it is okay not to know exactly what you want to major in. I changed my major and minor many times and I am still on track to graduate on time. It is just a matter of trying anything and seeing if you like it. Don’t be afraid to change your mind. So many people that I know are no longer majoring or minoring in what they thought they would when they entered college. And if you are like me and changed your mind so many times I just want to reaffirm that other people change their minds often as well.
Also, just to let you guys in on a little secret: I still am not sure what I actually want to do after graduation. I definitely enjoy learning about Public Relations but I have no idea if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Sometimes I think about being a lawyer or an optometrist. There are so many different jobs out there and things I might be interested in to choose just one. The rest of my life is such a long time. Something I have decided is if I ever get bored or change my mind it is never too late to go back to school or break into a new industry. I am probably going to change my mind many times and that’s okay.
