You know that major you've dreamt of taking up in college? The one you've been adamant and head strong about since your sophomore/junior year of high school?
Well, within your first year as an undergrad, it's likely that you will have a change of heart about your particular major... and I'm here to tell you that it's OK. No, you are not a failure. You're just being realistic with yourself and true passions.
As a little girl, up until my freshman year of college my mind was set on becoming an Obstetrician Gynecologist. Due to my extreme obsession with the formation of babies and the birthing process, I could sit in my room and watch "A Baby Story" on the TLC channel for hours visually devouring every aspect of life in labor and delivery. From then, I had my whole life planned out (or so I thought): I would attend college then medical school and eventually become one of the top OB/GYN doctor's in my field catering to celebrity patients and their offspring.
As always, fate had it's own plan for my life. I never really cared for science, and I've always despised math. Which I'm still surprised at myself for building up the momentum to pass my college algebra course with an 89, but I did because I had to.
Anyway, despite the fact that I didn't care for the two prominent subjects needed in order to succeed as a biology student, I went forward with my declaration of the major. When September 2008 rolled around, I was amped and ready to dive into my studies along with anything else my new college experience would have to offer.
My first semester was a breeze, I received an A in all my classes which made me think "I've got this college thing down pat," but things took a different turn once my second semester rolled around and I began to get into my major courses. Let's just say Biology 1 kicked my tail to the max. No matter how hard I tried, or how many times I visited my professor and worked with tutors... I didn't get it. Biology felt like a foreign language to me and I began to question my purpose and myself. That one class made me feel as though I no longer wanted to attend college... because what was the point? If I couldn't get past the primary classes then how would I ever excel? I questioned. I felt as though I was a failure, because becoming a doctor was all I would ever talk about. Going to that class twice a week was torture and after a while I began to tune out. Until one day I had a talk with my professor and she advised me to either risk receiving a D/F grade or make the decision to drop the class. Those words hurt me to my core because I would never even settle for a B-, more less a D or an F. Ultimately I dropped the course, my heart was crushed and I cried for a week straight not knowing what to do next. Once I decided that dropping out of college was unrealistic in my world, I began to change my perspective and become more open minded towards my deeper passions and consider the loads of other majors out there. In college you'll realize that there are a ton of majors that you could take up; you just have to do your research on them and visit different major departments to get a general sense of where you want to direct your college career.
My English classes are where I felt most fulfilled, even as a child writing came natural to me, as it was something I knew I couldn't live without. I always looked at writing as something that I enjoyed doing but at the time I never thought about pursing anything with it until I put in some hard core thought and spoke with my mentor and advisors about the matter. That's when I vowed to myself if I were to stay in college I would pursue something that I loved and didn't mind sharpening my skills in. I didn't believe in wasting money just to torture myself. Changing my major didn't mean that I was a failure, instead it meant that I was following my heart to excel within something else more effortlessly aligned to my total being.
I was surrounded in an institution filled with opportunity to develop into anything I wanted to be and that excited me. I came to the conclusion that if I could spend my life doing anything that would be to write.
My change of heart about my major wasn't the worse thing in the world (as I thought) it was actually a blessing in disguise. If I had never experienced what it was that I didn't like then I would have never went on to do what I truly loved.
...Its OK to change up the plan... Life is never straight forward.