We are trained throughout high school that by the time we graduate we need to have our major picked out for college. There's a lot of pressure to figure out what we want to do for the rest of our lives very early on when we don’t even realize what the college experience is actually like.
As we know, the first two years of college are usually just basic credits we have to take. These can range from a variety of subjects, and a lot of them may not even be major focused until we reach our second or third year of college. Still, there is so much pressure to have already decided on what field we want to go into. Before I graduated high school, I was convinced that I wanted to major in Psychology, but by the time I was in college and actually taking classes I figured out that I wanted my major to be political science. Obviously this is not as easy as I’m making it sound, but I found something I was really passionate about.
Finding your passions, the things that you care about most and would like to make a career out of is easier to navigate once you’ve already started college. I think something that is important to note is that even if you do declare a major right when you start college, it is not something that you have to stick to. There is full capability of switching if after a few years if a different passion is discovered.
Another thing to take into account when deciding on what to major in, is the goals and things you expect to get out of the major you’ve decided on. A lot of majors have many different avenues or paths to take that branch off that specific major as a whole, and looking into all the options of different majors is another way to figure out what might be your best option.
Another thing that might help you know if you picked the right major is how the material or the concepts feel to you when you’re learning about them. There have been so many times when people have rolled their eyes when I told them I was a political science major or said a “good for you!” that sounded like they may have actually felt bad for me. But political science was my choice!
When I look at my major as a whole, a lot of the stuff comes naturally to me. I feel driven and motivated by all of the avenues that exist within my major and this is a very reassuring feeling to me that reminds me that I love the major I chose.
An additional thing that might help you decide your major is if there is doubt in your mind or not. Once I got to a point where there was had no doubt in my mind about my major, I knew I had picked the right one.
And upon not having any doubt, I stuck with political science. Once you find your passion, and you know it, you owe it to yourself to follow it.
