I think I had always known what I really wanted to study but was quick to dismiss it in favor of a more “respected” major. I heard the horror stories of not being able to find a job after graduating or how the social sciences would be a waste of time and money according to some sources. So, I went through two years of horrible hell, I sat through more science and math classes than I should have. Finally, the summer before commencing my junior year, I had taken a math class over the summer. It was then that I decided that not only was I dreading taking all these math and science classes, I was not enjoying my college experience to say the very least. College is supposed to be a time of self-realization, independence and to some extent fun, right? I mean, to a certain extent yes, one can loathe their classes while in the moment, but at the end of the day, you know you are where you need to be. I, on the other hand, did not feel this way at all: not about my classes, and most definitely not about my major. I knew that I was not happy being miserable in every single class I took. At the same time, the more I looked into medical schools, I realized that maybe my plan to go into the medical field was not going to come to pass. I looked to the future and I wondered if it would be worth it. I started off my sophomore year as a biology major, and by the end of summer, and before the start of my junior year, I decided to switch my declared major. The thought of doing anything but medicine scared the life out of me. Ever since I was a little girl, I idolized doctors, in my head, they practiced one of the noblest professions. I had no sense of direction and for once, I had no plan. The thought of doing anything else was quite foreign, as I had this “plan” since I was nine years old.
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I knew that whatever I wanted to do, I wanted to contribute to my community or help those in need. I was driven by the need to help others, that was my motivation for considering the medical field, and I knew that it would be the most important factor in deciding my new path. I went through the academic catalog and went through the list of majors. Nothing really made sense until I came across International Relations. “Ah-ha!” there it was. I knew that my search had ended and all that was left to do was declare it. Up to this date, that was probably one of the most frightening aspects of my whole academic career. Nothing had really been set in stone, up until now it was still all floating up in the air. It could become reality or not, I could remain as a biology major or I could start fresh. The walk to the admissions and records office was probably one of the longest walks I have ever taken in my short life. You know those moments when you are about to make a huge life-altering decision and after you make it, with content you take a huge breath of relief because deep down you know it is the right one. Well, this was most definitely not one of those times. There was no relief, only anxiety. “What if I made the wrong choice?”. I was starting anew. From a B.S to a B.A., here I thought that in comparison to Organic chemistry and derivatives, everything else was going to be manageable. I still had, to my own dismay, that nasty habit of regarding nonSTEM majors as “easy”. That phase quickly ended, my professors made sure of it. All the writing I had done to this point was more or less like the writing I had done in my high school English classes. The first essay I received back as a non-STEM major shocked me. Thankfully, it was a draft, with quite a few suggestions I might add. Then came another one, and another, one professor after the other. My writing was too “Fluffy”, my word choice was “passive” and my sentence structure was “confusing”. “What?!”, I had written like this for so long, I was confused. “Fluffy?”, first of all, what did that mean? And “passive?”, it was
I knew that whatever I wanted to do, I wanted to contribute to my community or help those in need. I was driven by the need to help others, that was my motivation for considering the medical field, and I knew that it would be the most important factor in deciding my new path. I went through the academic catalog and went through the list of majors. Nothing really made sense until I came across International Relations. “Ah-ha!” there it was. I knew that my search had ended and all that was left to do was declare it. Up to this date, that was probably one of the most frightening aspects of my whole academic career. Nothing had really been set in stone, up until now it was still all floating up in the air. It could become reality or not, I could remain as a biology major or I could start fresh. The walk to the admissions and records office was probably one of the longest walks I have ever taken in my short life. You know those moments when you are about to make a huge life-altering decision and after you make it, with content you take a huge breath of relief because deep down you know it is the right one. Well, this was most definitely not one of those times. There was no relief, only anxiety. “What if I made the wrong choice?”. I was starting anew. From a B.S to a B.A., here I thought that in comparison to Organic chemistry and derivatives, everything else was going to be manageable. I still had, to my own dismay, that nasty habit of regarding nonSTEM majors as “easy”. That phase quickly ended, my professors made sure of it. All the writing I had done to this point was more or less like the writing I had done in my high school English classes. The first essay I received back as a non-STEM major shocked me. Thankfully, it was a draft, with quite a few suggestions I might add. Then came another one, and another, one professor after the other. My writing was too “Fluffy”, my word choice was “passive” and my sentence structure was “confusing”. “What?!”, I had written like this for so long, I was confused. “Fluffy?”, first of all, what did that mean? And “passive?”, it was