I’m an English major, but how did I get here?
When we are young, there are a plethora of things that we want to be, but as we get older, dreams change as we do. What I wanted to do when I was younger is vastly different from what I want to do now, but to get where I am, I went through what I like to call phases, until I found something I truly wanted to pursue.
You see, when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Although that idea died as quickly as it was formed. Not only was I a terrible artist, my ideas were definitely not fashion forward. During this phase, I actually researched fashion designing for an after school project, where I talked about how the education that goes into the career, as well as interviewing a working fashion designer. Not only do I use the term “researching” very loosely, I still have the presentation in my google drive. Fashion designing isn’t my dream now, but it is certainly a nice reminder of the past.
Freshman year in high school, I wanted to act and perform. That only lasted a year after I took Theater Arts 1 during that time and to say the least, it was a very humbling experience. I didn’t meet any of the requirements to succeed in that class, I wasn’t outgoing or loud or overly comfortable in front of a crowd. To further tell you why the performing arts was not my calling is the fact that I almost got a B in that class. Yes, you read that right, I almost got a B in an elective class. I did get an A, but still, it was no doubt an eye-opener.
My sophomore year, I started gaining interest in space, astrobiology to be more exact. I liked biology enough, but I was so curious about life outside our own. So, the next year when I was a junior, I took the astrobiology class that was offered at my high school. Not only was I uninterested in the subject, I didn’t understand half the things that we were learning. So, I realized that it may not be my “thing.”
Senior year, I changed what I wanted to pursue again. This time it was psychology, criminal psychology to be more specific. The way that I came across this phase was due to nothing other than a show, Criminal Minds. I loved that they were able to get inside the heads of criminals and I got very interested in learning behavior and brain function of criminals. So, that’s what I focused on. I finished senior year, and went to community college as a psychology major.
But by the end of my first year of college, I quickly learned that I did not want to pursue psychology or anything that contained math or science, really.
I was a junior when the pandemic started and the transition to online schooling, as well as missing out on a lot of senior events the year after, was less than ideal. Although it did resurface my love of reading. When I was younger, I used to read a lot, but high school happened and that love of reading that I once had became required and a chore, more than anything else.
I liked psychology enough, but I could not imagine going into upper-division courses for the major. During the first year, the idea of changing my major to English formed in my mind. It was a battle that my head had created. The fight between a future in STEM or the humanities. At first, it didn’t seem logical, but throughout my second semester of college, I thought what if. What if I changed my major to English? What if I pursued a publishing career? What if I pursued a writing career? What if I could become an author?
So, that’s what I did. I changed my major from psychology to English and I’ve never been happier. It was hands down the best decision for my future academic and career endeavors.
If someone told me when I was in high school that I would be an English major, I would not have believed them. I feel like that is a cliche thing to say, but in all honesty, that is the truth. In high school, English was not my strongest subject, more like the opposite. I struggled every year to read the books that were assigned and write my analytical essays.
But look at me now.
The idea of trial and error is scary, because you don’t know how many times you are going to go through it, but I do believe that it is part of life, especially so you don’t end up pursuing something you are not passionate about.