When finally committing to a college or higher education program, you may feel many emotions. I know that when I first committed, I felt a sense of relief, anxiety, and happiness. I was very excited to start this new chapter of my life and relived that I didn’t have to stress about making this huge decision anymore. The other part of me was feeling pretty anxious or nervous because I had never done anything like this before. I knew that one day in August my parents would have to drop my stuff and I off in an area that I’m not very familiar with and then from there on out I’d be on my own. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am the type of person who loves to ignore everything negative or any worries that I may have and just focus on the positive aspects of life. I know that this can be a good and bad thing because eventually you have to snap back into reality and realize that not everything in life is going to be picture perfect.
When preparing myself for my “college era,” I swarmed Pinterest and Tik Tok to look up things like study tips, dorm décor, and checklists of things to bring and not to bring to college. I spent so much time looking at the “fun” aspects of going to college but never really thought about anything else that could possibly happen. When I came to St. Bonaventure University as a freshman last fall, I was a nursing major with hopes of becoming a registered nurse. Let’s just say I am no longer continuing with that path. About 2 weeks into the semester, I had started to panic and realize that nursing wasn’t for me. I was so nervous about feeling this way because I didn’t want to set myself behind or be unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. To be completely honest I don’t even remember what made me want to become a nurse in the first place. I’m never wanted to be that kid that didn’t know what they were doing, and I never wanted to go to college with an “undecided” major. I remember vividly one night I had called my mom, and she was at my grandparents’ house back home. I had said hello to everyone and let them know how I was doing and then I brought up the subject of potentially switching my major. My family was kind of surprised to hear this because they were sure that my heart was set on going into the medical field. As I was explaining to my mom about why I wanted to switch majors I remember choking up and just started to uncontrollably cry. Eventually, my family was able to calm me down and we talked about it. A few days later, I declared myself as an “undecided communications” major. When I went to the admissions office to change my major, I just thought I could declare to “undecided” but I didn’t realize I had to pick from either communications, business, or arts and sciences. I picked communications because I knew I could take more writing classes which would help me out in any career along with completing some general education courses.
Fast forward to the spring semester, I had been thinking about other potential majors the whole time and finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to major in educational studies. Many people may not know what this major technically is, but basically, it’s for those who want to work with children either as a school counselor, social worker, or even a child advocate. Once I had made this switch, I automatically felt 10x more comfortable than before and was content with my final decision. It’s okay to feel unsure of what you want to do with your life. Making such a big decision at 17 and 18 years old puts a lot of pressure on a teenager. We may not always make the best decision, but we end up learning from it all. Most students in college end up changing their major or career path once or twice before they graduate and that’s completely fine. Personally, I feel that this whole experience of switching my major benefited me in the end because I was able to seek out different careers that I may not have thought of before and it also showed me my strengths and weakness that I never considered when coming into college. Change is not a bad thing even though some people may make it out to be. Change is good and we all need a little bit of change in our lives, even if if scares us in that moment.