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I Chose the Wrong Major

I realized something this fall: I don’t think I chose the “right” college major. I say this for several reasons. First,I feel really disappointed in the core classes I’ve needed to take for my major. In fact, the classes that I most enjoyed throughout my college experience have not been related to my major at all. After hearing this you’re probably thinking, “Jeez Katie, why don’t you just switch your major?” I did think about changing majors but after analyzing the extra time and money it would require, I made peace with the fact that I wasn’t going to be thrilled with my college experience. I took so many college classes in high school that applied to my intended degree that I could’ve easily graduated in a total of five semesters if I wanted to. I stuck with it believing the specific degree I was going to obtain wasn’t going to have that much of a profound effect on my career. The good thing about my major is that it is so versatile. I’m sure I’ll use various skills I’ve gained throughout my time at Iowa State, and I probably learned more than I realize at this time. Looking back though, I wish I would have thought deeply about what really excited me earlier and I would’ve had more time to figure out how to turn that into a career. 


I should have known from the start. Unlike most 18 year old’s, I was NOT excited to head off to college. As a freshman, you arrive to campus 5ish days before classes start to get acquainted and attend orientation activities. I had a bad attitude from the get-go and made all kinds of excuses to get out of having to go to the events. My dorm wasn’t all that bad and I had a great roommate, but I still didn’t want to be there. Throughout that first semester and into the next, I felt like I was just going through the motions. I didn’t genuinely enjoy any of the activities or classes I was in, but I accepted that as the norm. Everyone has classes they don’t enjoy. I believed it couldn’t get any better. 


The classes I took in my first two years of college seemed pointless and not worth the cost of tuition. Maybe this is the case with a lot of majors, but I was disappointed with my experience. I wondered if it would be worth it to change paths and enroll in a different major. I had taken an accounting class and an entrepreneurship class, both of which are in the college of business. These were the first two classes at college that I looked forward to attending each week. I loved them and wanted to take more like them. I looked into the possibility of changing my major, but decided I didn’t want to stay at school for a few more years, so I added a business minor instead. Who knew that I would say that I look forward to doing my accounting homework each week? My mom is probably saying “I told you so” right now because she encouraged me to major in accounting from the start. But you could ask any college student whether they think college lectures are worth their time, and 90% of people would say no. I came to the conclusion that staying an extra one or two years was only going to buy time to “figure out” my life. Sitting around in more lectures would be a money drain. 


It wasn’t until near the end of my second summer internship that I started thinking about what I actually wanted to spend my life doing, and this is totally my own fault. The thoughts stemmed from me going to work in a corporate environment every day and realizing that I didn’t aspire to spend my life in that kind of job. I didn’t hate the work by any means, but it didn’t light me up, either. I would get in the car at the end of each day feeling drained and uninspired by the work I was doing. I couldn’t help but think, “Is this as good as it gets?” I compared the internship to the other jobs I had at the time - my own photography business and teaching fitness classes at ISU. With both of my other two jobs I almost always felt a sense of fulfillment and drive when getting in the car after work.


I’m sharing all of this with you because of the realization I had while trying to process it all. I’m unhappy with my original decision and disappointed in the department I chose, but I know it’s all going to be okay. It’s easy to feel guilty and agonize over the concept of making a wrong decision - especially when it has an influence on the course of your life. The benefit of my internship was that I gained valuable experience and at the same time learned what doesn’t suit me when it comes to the workplace. I'm thankful to have learned this, but I can't help but wonder how things would be different if I had a clearer picture earlier of what I saw myself doing. I listen to so many business podcasts and read books about successful people and they all seem to have one thing in common: they do not end up in the career they had their sights set on in college. What does this mean for me? I’ve decided I’m not going to get caught up in making sure everything is perfect. For once I’m not going to try to desperately come up with a solution or try to fix things immediately. I believe that when I decide what I want to spend my professional career doing, I can make it happen. Sure, I can’t become a doctor or an engineer or something that takes years of formal training, but I see most other pursuits as extremely possible. 


With only seven months until graduation, the pressure is on to discover the “right” position to get my career started . To be honest, I don’t have a super clear picture of what I really want to do. There are so many things I’m interested in it’s difficult to pick just one to focus on. But in the meantime, I'm not going to sit around and wish this or that would have been different. I have faith that something will come along and it will be a great fit. Even if I made a wrong decision somewhere, I know everything is going to turn out just fine. It’s just part of the journey. 

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