I thought I was going to love my major in college and stick with it all four years. I was wrong, which I wasn’t okay with at first because I didn’t know what I was going to want to study. An important lesson that came out of my struggle with picking a new major is that wanted to be in love with whatever I chose to study.
When applying to colleges, I thought I wanted to be a nursing major. I was under the impression that I wanted to be a pediatric nurse and work with children eventually. But then I took one of the required classes, Anatomy and Physiology. I came to the harsh reality of how difficult this road would be. These classes were a lot harder than I anticipated and I couldn’t understand any of the information I was supposed to be learning. After the first couple weeks of taking that class my freshman year, I knew nursing was not the track for me.
It wasn’t just how hard the classes were, I didn’t get excited talking about my major. It didn’t make me look forward to my future career. I couldn’t even picture myself wearing scrubs and walking around a hospital. So there I was, feeling trapped in a major I didn’t belong in but luckily there was a class that always had my attention and that was the Communications class I was taking. After arranging a meeting with the professor who taught the class, I learned much more about what being a Communications major would be like. I would get to take classes such as public speaking, have a concentration in journalism or public relations if I wanted or I would even be able to take a class in the radio station. The more my professor told me about the major, the more excited I got and decided that I was ready to make the switch.
I handed in the paperwork one fall afternoon and became a Communications Media major with a concentration in Journalism. Now, I am the very first Communications Media major at Utica College. This is a major that I fell in love with, it’s so interactive and I get excited when talking about it. I was able to find a major that I was comfortable in and was a good fit for. As a sophomore, I’m taking three communications classes and one of those classes involves me being on air at the radio station. I could picture myself with headphones on, speaking into a microphone asking my guest host interview questions. This class made me realize that I have big dreams with this major and eventually want to work at a radio station. I wouldn’t even consider it a job, because it’s something that I’m going to love to do.