Throughout the entirety of high school and even much before that, I was sure that my future would include me doing something within the science field. So, naturally, I applied to all biology-related programs for university. But when it came time to actually accept my offer, I had an overwhelming sense of panic and realized that this was absolutely not what I wanted to do with my life. So instead of accepting an offer that I didn’t want, I decided to take a gap year with the hopes that when it came time to reapply to universities, I would have a better grasp on what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, that was not the case. But I really didn’t want to take another year off so I decided to apply to a bunch of business programs, as it seemed like a general degree that I could kind of do just about anything with. And that is how I ended up here, where I’m just about finished with my third year of Laurier’s business program.
I didn’t really know what to expect when it came to business, but I’ve since realized that there are so many aspects within business that I hugely dislike. I can count on one hand the number of business courses I’ve taken and actually enjoyed. I’ve spent so much time and effort in these mandatory courses that I hate when I know I’m never going to touch these subjects again, which just makes these courses feel useless to me. The worst part for me, though, is that I’m unable to take any of the specialized courses in the part of business that I’m actually interested in and want to make my concentration until fourth year. But it is what it is, and I guess it just means that fourth year will be much better.
Another thing that I found unexpected (but probably shouldn’t have), is the fact that everything we learn in this program is from the corporate perspective of business. I really don’t care about what corporations want, so the number of times I have either come home and complained to my roommates about it or called my mom complaining is frankly off the charts. I guess what I kind of expected was to learn about how to succeed as an individual in business, not how to help a giant corporation become even more successful, if that makes sense?
Although I’ve been only really listing my negative opinions on the program, it hasn’t been all bad. Besides the actual course content of this program, I’ve been able to gain a lot of experience and opportunities that I know will help me in the future. Through the never-ending presentations, I’ve become more confident when it comes to public speaking. My interpersonal skills have greatly improved throughout the past three years and so has my self-confidence, especially when it comes to believing in myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been really enjoying the university experience, as it has allowed me to branch out of my comfort zone, but my experience with the business program specifically has had its ups and downs. Even with this in mind, I can say that I don’t regret my choice. I still don’t really know what I want to do in the future and there’s no other program that I wish I would’ve taken instead. I do still believe that this is a general degree, and that everything I learned and all the skills I’ve gained will help me to be successful. If someone were to want to get into business, I would say that this is a good program overall, it just isn’t what I expected it to be when I first started out. With all this in mind, I will still say that I’m content with my choice to go into business as I know I can find a way to make this experience work with whatever I decide to do in the future.