It Isn't College Until You Change Your Major

Hey there, my dear readers.

I mentioned on Facebook the other day that I was changing my major.  "It's not college until you change your major", I wrote with sincerity.  When a friend of mine mentioned that her daughter, a freshman in college, really needed to hear that, I realized that this is something a lot of young people (myself included) struggle with.

I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions about college.  Like how you're supposed to know what you want to be when you grow up at the time you send in the applications.  Like how you have to go immediately after high school, and how you have to go straight through.  How you have to have a degree to get a good job.  Things like that.  Just preconceived notions that no one really says out loud but that are somehow assumed.

At least, they have been in my case.  Maybe your college career is textbook: graduate high school, know what you want, go to college, graduate in four years, and get the job you've worked for.  I know people that this has happened almost perfectly for.  And there is nothing wrong with that. :)

But for most of us, the path is a lot more confusing.

So this post is for you, my graduating high school seniors and my young folks in upper level education.  Listen close, and take to heart.

College is messy.

Allow me to tell you my story.  It's kind of long, so bear with me.

I am nearly 24 years old and in my fourth year of college.  My path has been pretty sloppy, if I may say so myself.  And I don't say that in a bad way, by the way.  I wouldn't change it.  It just doesn't fit the norm.  (But really, what is normal, anyway?)

In high school, I was homeschooled.  I graduated when I was 18 like most people.  Honestly, I didn't know what I wanted to do.  Did I want to go to college?  Did I want to work?  Did I want to take road trips?  The questions were endless.

So when my friends were filling out their college apps, I decided to take some time for myself.  I didn't apply to any schools.  Instead, I got a job.  I worked at a Sylvan Learning Center as a student aid.  It was probably the best job I've ever had.  I was exposed to education, I was able to read and relax, I got to work with adults who respected me, I got to play with kids, and I made money.  This gave me a taste of being self sufficient and gave me a chance to figure out what I wanted to do.

Now, people mean well.  But this - working and not going directly from high school to college - is not a conventional path.  At the onset of making my choice, I got a lot of flack from people who didn't know me or my situation.  They criticized my parents for "allowing" me to take time off in my education and they criticized me.  "If you don't go now, you'll never go," they warned.  I stuck to it, though, and I'm really thankful I did.

When I was 19, I enrolled in community college.  The gap year I took helped me realize that I wanted to go to school.  Because I was 100% sure I wanted to go and because I had the means to pay for it myself, I worked harder for my grades and got more out of my experience than I think I would have if I had gone directly from high school to college.  I owned my education.  It was (and is) mine.

(This has lasted with me up until today.  Even though I currently do not work, I still own my education.  No one can take it from me, and that is empowering.  Remember that: what you learn and do is yours.  No one can ever take it away from you.)

I originally was a Biology major.  I wanted to teach high school bio and so an Associates of Science was what I started with.  But by the middle of my second semester, I was miserable.  I didn't enjoy my college biology class, and the math I was taking didn't make sense.  In fact, the classes that I did like were the ones I had taken the previous semester: English and Intro to Literature.

So I changed in the middle of the spring semester to an Associates of Arts.

At this time, I wanted a change.  I had been working at Sylvan for two years, and decided to try something new.  That summer, I left Sylvan and went to work for the Einstein's Bagels across the street for what sounded like a promising opportunity.  It was horrible.  The hours made me cry, the work was alright but stressful, and the people weren't the supportive type that I had become used to while at Sylvan.

A few weeks into my fall semester, I couldn't take it any more.  My family had a meeting, and my parents assured me they would not think less of me if I quit and focused on school.  So I did. I decided to not work for a while.  I took out loans, but it worked in my advantage.  I was able to take a full semester of classes that seemed interesting to me.  One of them was Introduction to Creative Writing, and something clicked.  This was a class I loved and something I wanted to do.

So I changed (I guess they call it "modifying", but in my mind it's changing) from Arts to Creative Writing.

In the two years that it took me to finish my Associates in Creative Writing (for a three year total at the community level), things began to happen in my life.  I met a boyfriend (who is now my fiance), I started working a weekend job passing out samples at the grocery store (which I kept up until this current semester), I joined the honor society at school and took on a leadership position, and I wrote constantly.

Until the semester before I graduated, I was pretty happy with things.

At some point towards the end of my degree, I started getting asked what I was going to do when I graduated.  More specifically, I was getting all sorts of advice about becoming an English teacher and going on to get my Bachelor's.

But at this point, I wasn't sure what I wanted.  School was good, but I was beginning to feel burned out.  And there were a lot of stresses in my life that I couldn't control that were wearing me out.

So when I graduated in 2012, I chose to work retail for a while.  "Maybe," I thought, "I'll just work retail for a few years and then get married and that'll be that."  This was much to the disappointment of many of my teachers and some of my friends, who insisted I was going to get bored.

Looking back, I can see where they are coming from.  But honestly, I know how I am.  I needed that time off to help me find my footing again.

I worked the summer of 2012 at J. C. Penny's while still maintaining my weekend job at the grocery store.  It was a living nightmare.  I was irritable and sad and my anxiety attacks (something I developed during my time at community college) were coming more and more frequently.  I quit JCP four months after working there and tried something new.  I taught violin lessons and opened my own Etsy store.  I went for walks.  I wrote.

And then I decided to go back to college.

  I had the papers filled out, got accepted, and was in the process of registering for classes when the chaos of last spring hit.  I think I've blogged enough about that; all I'm going to say here is that going back to school helped me keep my sanity.

When I went back to college (this time a four year university while still living at home), I was originally enrolled as an Environmental Science major.  My associates transferred in, but I still had a lot to do.  Last semester wasn't too bad.  I took Bio II with a lab, Intro to Environmental Science, and a few other classes.  They were all very interesting.

But as I've struggled through this current semester, I've done some soul searching.  My teachers and friends were right - teaching is in my blood.  Within the past three days, I've changed my major yet again to one I'm planning on staying with.  I am now an English major with a concentration and minor in Secondary Education.

And if that isn't a total change, I don't know what is.

Total degrees I've changed or registered for: 5

Total job changes since high school: 4

I know this post is long, but hang with me just a little longer.

It doesn't matter what anyone says.  Only you know yourself.  This is your path, not anyone else's.  And no matter how you do it, you own it.

Work.  Don't work.

Take a gap year.  Or go directly to.

Change your major several times until you find one that fits you.

If college doesn't work for you, don't feel bad at dropping or taking time away from it.  No education is wasted.

Graduate with something that makes you happy; the jobs will follow.  And know that if you decide not to use your degree, that's fine.

This life, this journey, is yours.  I think that's something that often gets left out or over looked.  Own it. Don't let others dictate your experiences.  Don't let others tell you you're wrong.  And always do what makes you feel good, what interests you.

This is your time to come into your own.  You aren't alone.

~Meaghan