What I Learned From Changing My College Major

Before starting college, I thought I had my whole life planned out. I was going to go to Brown University and study Political Science as a major and Chemistry as a minor. I would then graduate and attend a top law school. After law school, I would work my way up the political ladder and end up becoming president. Ever since I was little, this was my plan. The only part of my plan that was interchangeable was the university, as my original plan was to attend Oxford.

I thought I would definitely get into Brown. Boy, was I naive. I was accepted into their summer program, so I had to get into their class of 2018. Nope. Didn’t happen. That was the first change in my master plan.

I then started classes at Fordham University. My major was initially political science on a pre-law track. I gave up on the chemistry minor and I did not have a minor for about a year. The first thing I learned from that situation was that the universe works in strange ways. I would have never discovered my love for creative writing if I had been stuck in science classes and lab sessions. However, we are not at that realization yet. No — first comes my realization that politics may not be for me.

In high school, I loved political science. I took AP politics, I had an internship with my local assemblyman, and I enjoyed discussing what was going on in the world. However, when I took my first political science class, I realized that this wasn’t for me. The class was taught at a very slow pace and I just didn’t see myself taking 9 more classes like it. I then thought that maybe law school was for me.

I took the LSAT during my Sophomore year of college. My school has a three for three program and to get in, you need to have taken the LSAT by junior year. I decided to take it in October to get it done early. Studying for that test is a long and gruesome process. I was bored. I took the test. I got my grade. Then I decided that I didn’t see myself continuing my study of law at this point in my life, so I let it be. I knew that I didn’t need a law degree for other business ventures.

When it came time to actually finalize a declaration, I switched my major. I switched to communications. For me, it wasn’t simply about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. At that point, it was mostly about what was more versatile. After years of being on a certain path to political acclaim and a dream presidential run, I became lost and had no plan to follow. I knew that communications would allow me to explore public relations, journalism, TV, radio, marketing, and more, so that’s why I chose to declare communications as my major.

From there, I found a love of writing. I decided to minor in creative writing, so a majority of my classes would be writing-based. Most of the classes I took for my major and minor revolved around creativity and writing. These classes included journalism, script writing, short story writing, and novel classes.

I learned many things from this experience. I learned that unexpected changes can be good. I learned that life is unpredictable. Finally, I learned that not every detail about your future needs to be planned out. It is okay to change plans and do something new. New can be exciting. I have found all of my journalism and writing jobs to be very exciting! While I may still have a pre-law track listed on my resume, I have no current plans to go to law school or pursue my initial political ambitions.