choosing my major

I’m sure many of you have gone or are currently going through the process of choosing your college major.  It’s a pretty big decision, but luckily it’s never set in stone.  However, the pressure to choose is very real, and it can be super intimidating for some.  While it’s always good to have a plan when you start your secondary education, it’s almost guaranteed to change in some regard.  Very few people graduate college with the exact same career path in mind that they entered with – so it’s totally fine to not have it all figured out!!  I thought I had a solid plan until a few months ago when everything changed and something in my gut was telling me that my original plan wasn’t what I actually wanted.

When I entered high school and was forced to start giving thought to what I would be doing after college, I wasn’t really sure where to start.  I was given lots of information about different schools and careers from attending college and career fairs at my school, but it still took me a while to figure out what felt right for me.

During my sophomore year, I took a sports medicine class and discovered that I love learning about the human body and all things health.  From then on, I looked into a ton of healthcare careers, eventually landing on nursing.  Nursing felt like the best option for me: not an excessive amount of time spent in school, good pay, and I would get to help people.  The more I learned about nursing, the more I was excited to go into that field… until a couple months ago.

Over the last few months of my first year of college, I was going through a lot.  My car had broken down and I was forced to spend thousands of dollars on another, I had gotten engaged and was planning a wedding for the summer, and I just had a lot on my plate.  I was feeling overwhelmed much too often, and I was starting to question some of the decisions I had made up until that point.

Because my car had broken down and we didn’t have enough money to buy two new cars, I had decided to discontinue my education at my current school so that Nick (my husband) and I could live together without either of us having to drive very far to attend classes.  While I looked at the schools near where we would be living, I came across a public health program at one of the colleges.  Immediately, it sparked my interest.  I started looking into public health careers and the like and became increasingly excited the more I learned.  But was my new interest strong enough for me to completely give up nursing?

After a lot of thought, I decided it was.  Thinking about studying public health made me more excited and less anxious than thinking about nursing did, so I decided to go all in.  I met with a public health professor and talked to one of my oldest and closest friends who’s also studying public health.  Nick and I had a lot of conversations about it (probably way more than he would have preferred), and eventually I made a plan.  I enrolled in the school Nick has been going to for the past couple years, attended online orientation, and created my class schedule for the upcoming year.

I’m still unsure of what career I want to pursue after graduation, but I am super excited to learn more about the field of public health over the next few years – and hopefully share it with all of you! 

Choosing a major is a pretty important decision, but don’t let it consume your life!  Try new things, push yourself, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.  Do what YOU want to do, and everything else will fall into place. (: