I remember when I first started applying to colleges, I had zero doubt when picking which major I wanted to apply for. I came into my freshman year as a Political Science major, eager to learn and eager to begin my journey to getting into law school. I mean, it just made sense to me at the time. I was known to be headstrong, a perfect candidate for a battle in the courtroom. Also, my favorite class I had taken in high school was AP U.S. Government and Politics, so I was absolutely confident that this was the right path for me. I was ready to embrace my inner Elle Woods, until I wasn’t.
I did what most freshmen do during my freshman year: I went to a lot of club meetings. Like, a concerning amount of club meetings. What can I say, I wanted to meet people! The club that I stuck with the most during my first semester of my freshman year was Phi Alpha Delta, a pre-law fraternity here on campus. It seemed like the perfect opportunity not only to meet people with the same ambitions as myself, but to prepare myself for the difficult road I knew was ahead. However, the more I went to these meetings, the more I realized that I don’t really find myself cut out for law school. As smart and as motivated as I like to think I am, I don’t know if I could tackle something as crazy and notoriously difficult as the LSAT. Furthermore, I came to understand the financial burden of law school, and when the words, “We are helping you through undergrad, and that’s it” came out of my parent’s mouths, I knew it was time to come up with another plan.
I wanted a major where I felt I had more opportunities than I did in Political Science. Don’t get me wrong, the Political Science department at Virginia Tech is amazing and has so much to offer, but I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to stay a part of if law school wasn’t in the picture anymore. So, I did what any person in panic would do: I started taking Business classes.
I had already been taking some classes for a business minor I had decided to pick up, but the point of no return for me was when I dropped my Comparative Politics class for a class on Microsoft Excel. I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I had to get some of the prerequisites out of the way before I decided anyways. After a good amount of research, I decided on the perfect major for me: Cybersecurity Management and Analytics. It’s the type of major you tell people that makes them go, Wow! For me, when I saw that option, I saw dollar signs. Plus, my dad works in computers, and I knew it would make him happy.
However, after my first exams last semester, I once again realized that this major wasn’t for me. Not only was I even less passionate about it than I was about Political Science, but my information technology classes and computer classes that my major focused on were really, really hard, and in my opinion, absolutely dreadful. For the first time in my life, I felt like school just wasn’t clicking. Not that I’m not up for a challenge, but I want something that I’m passionate about, that clicks to me, and that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life.
Fortunately enough for me, I found that this year. My Financial Accounting class is something I would have never thought to call my favorite class. When adding it to my schedule as a required class for the Fall 2024 semester, I cringed at what I thought would be just another hard and boring class. But no, my professor has been absolutely amazing, everything made sense, and it’s something I want to do. I hate to sound like a total nerd, but I get excited when it’s time to do accounting homework. Who would’ve thought?
So in conclusion, it’s totally okay if you don’t know what you want to do. It’s okay if the major you initially thought you were passionate about ends up being a completely different story. The entire point of college is to learn, and that expands outside the classroom to learn more about yourself. Adulthood doesn’t just come to you the second you turn eighteen and move out of your parents’ house into a small dorm room, it’s all about transition, and it continues that way for the rest of your life.