Entering Hopkins in 2017, I thought I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to study. Having loved chemistry and math in high school, I came in as a chemical engineering major. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after college, but I figured having a degree in engineering would open up a lot of doors for me. I took calculus, physics, and chemistry, in addition to a career-exploration class that was required for all chemical engineering majors.
Within half a semester, I knew it wasn’t for me. None of the professionals that came to talk to us had jobs that were particularly interesting to me. Apart from that, not only was I bad at the STEM classes I was in, I genuinely had no interest in them and thus no motivation to try to get better at them besides not wanting my G.P.A to fall drastically.
At the same time, I watched as my classmates took classes that all seemed way cooler to me. I found myself jealous that my friends could take interesting classes in history and political science, meanwhile I was doing things that were not only very hard for me, but that I knew I was completely dispassionate about.
So, come the end of the semester, I changed from chemical engineering to international studies. Flash forward two more semesters, and I had also picked up a history double major. I was ecstatic to have a schedule that finally felt fun and interesting. The road to this wasn’t so simple, however. As a child of immigrants and an immigrant myself, I (as many students, regardless of where you come from) had to deal with many expectations about what I was supposed to do with my college degree. However, ultimately, the experience taught me that I could create my own path to a fulfilling life by following what I loved to do.
The change was drastic, but it was something I genuinely knew would bring me a lot more happiness. I thought I liked engineering because math and science were the only things that I had exposed myself to in high school, but entering college, I got to see the wide options I really had, and it was only then that I found my passion.
That’s not to say that I think this switch is for everyone. Difficulty should not be the reason to change a major – in fact, I think you should challenge yourself and let yourself take courses that make you work hard for good grades. My issue, however, was that I was neither naturally good at these classes nor interested enough in them to want to get better at them. I hated waking up and going to class, and I wanted to fix that.
Another side to this story is that don’t believe that changing your major will be a straight line to better grades. Nor will every single class in your major be exciting or easy to go to (9:00 A.M.’s are difficult regardless of what you’re doing)! Every major has its difficulties, but it’s up to you to find something worth those late nights and headaches.
Now, being a junior, I find myself telling this story to a lot of students. I don’t advocate for being reckless in choosing your major, but I do advocate for not being afraid of venturing outside things that are making you happy in order to find what you actually like. If you’re lucky enough to stumble onto your passion like I was, go for it! Every day, I am thankful that I took that one history class in freshman year that made me question my major and eventually led to me feeling so excited to learn every day.