What I Learned By Changing My Major

Written by Audrey Hazel

Freshman fall is a hard adjustment period for everyone in different ways.  Everyone, of course, has to deal with the struggle of moving out of their childhood home and finally taking responsibility for oneself. The first few weeks are filled with excitement, new friends, and a whole new place to explore.  They pass quickly, and at first it seems like homesickness and the struggle of college classes won’t come after all.  For me, when the homesickness hit so did something else – I realized that I really just wasn’t cut out for a career in medicine as I had always hoped to be.  I came to Hopkins not as someone who thought “Oh, I got into Johns Hopkins, maybe I should give pre-med a try,” but rather as someone who had applied to JHU with the intent of continuing on to med school afterwards.  

Realizing that I wasn’t cut out for my neuroscience major and actually accepting it, however, are two very different things.  At first it felt like I was just giving up too easily, and I told myself my grades would get better and my moods would lift as I adjusted to life as a college student.  The opposite happened though, and by the end of the semester I was so burnt out that I wanted to go home and not come back.  At this point, I knew I had to make a big change or I wouldn’t make it through my four years, let alone into medical school.  

This semester, I am taking courses more geared towards an International Studies degree, with a minor in Marketing and Communications as well as in Spanish.  I am realizing that changing majors isn’t giving up, and it isn’t accepting defeat.  Changing majors is simply reevaluating where your strengths lie, and putting them to good use.  I am enjoying my classes more, feeling much more on top of my life, not just in school but also in my training for Track and Field, and my emotions as well.  I am learning that it is okay to change my mind; not everyone knows what they want to do the minute they step onto campus.  They say college is about learning who you are, and that certainly doesn’t happen overnight, or even entirely in your first year.