By Brian Brecker
Elm Staff Writer
Many are frightened by the prospect of choosing a major, as that decision will largely decide the outcome and course of not only your academic career, but your professional career as well. These feelings are valid. There are many things that are irrational to be scared of, but choosing a major is not one of these. Even if you choose to change your major, you often have put in too much work into other areas of academic study to turn around completely without adding more years of education. This is exacerbated if you are one of the aimless, free-thinking, indecisive types, like me, who would prefer to live in the library than take classes.
Don’t choose a major because it will help you get employed, boost your ego, or if it’s what your family does. Everyone is good at something, yes even you, dear reader, and you must major in the area you are best at. Identify what you are skilled at or knowledgeable in, and major in it. Don’t tell anyone that you don’t know if you’re up for it, or if it’s not employable. Do you want to major in gender studies? Do it. It’s better to have a specific set of skills than a noncommittal major in a topic.
It may make you feel better about yourself to know some things about philosophy or sociology, but if you don’t have the passion for that subject, don’t choose it. When I say passion, what do I mean? Well, using the Socratic method, I’d ask “What academic subject do you most often involve yourself with in thinking about day-to-day?” There is a disconnect from our average thoughts and the larger fields they represent. For instance, many people possess political opinions and engage in discussions on these things regularly, but do not dive deeper into political or ideological theory. That’s the real rub here; the depth to which you attempt to understand a given field should be an indicator to your passions.
College isn’t here for you to please your parents or what they expect of you. In fact, this is most often the place to disconnect from family influence in our professional, and sometimes, personal lives. It doesn’t matter what your parents want you to do, or what your siblings are up to. All that matters is your journey toward a profession that best fits your passions. If you feel as though you need help deciding on your major, we have academic advisors who will happily talk you through the process of declaring or deciding a major.
In my opinion, academic work shouldn’t merely be a conduit toward employment. Personal happiness and comfort is integral to choosing a major. Jobs occupy the majority of adults’ time, and thus it makes the most sense that, to be the most happy, we should choose a course that involves work that is personally rewarding towards us. As well, with the college debt crisis that has been accumulating over the last several decades, there is strong economic weight on students when of choosing a major. We must make the most out of the time we have as students in college in order for the decision to come to college at all to have been a worthwhiledecision. These are the freest years of our lives, and we should work toward maintaining this sense of freedom in the years to come.