Thanks to Signing Day that happened recently, I have constantly been hearing the question, “What are you majoring in?”
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love answering this question because I love my major. What I don’t love is people’s reactions to my answer.
When I tell people that I am majoring in psychology, they usually give me a look followed by the ominous “Ohhh.”
But maybe I should clarify. When I tell people inside of the CNU bubble what I’m majoring in, they actually think that it’s pretty cool and don’t think twice about it, considering that psychology is one of CNU’s most popular majors.
Yet, when I tell people outside of CNU, I don’t feel the approval I’m looking for. Instead, I get questions such as, “You’re majoring in what?” “Don’t you want to get a job?” “What are you going to do with that?” The last one is my personal favorite.
Now, I have to admit, I first heard these intimidating questions from my parents and rightfully so. After switching from biology to psychology, I realized that my parents, along with other people, were going to wonder about the switch.
While hearing the constant “We’ll support you no matter what” from my parents, I wanted more validation than that. I wanted to knock people’s socks off with my major and my future plans like I did when I was a biology major dreaming of being a trauma surgeon.
Yet after having long talks about this subject with many people, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t necessarily have all the answers yet.
Sure, I have some answers. For example, I know I love psychology and that I want a career that involves helping people. I know that after I graduate from CNU, I want to immediately begin a graduate program for psychology.
After these answers, the rest becomes a little fuzzy. But you know what? That’s okay. Even though I’m type A and love knowing what’s going to happen ahead of time, I can accept that some things are going to take time to figure out.
Majoring in psychology does not mean I am stuck in a “psychology only” square for the rest of my life. Plenty of people major in psychology and continue on to find a career that makes them happy, whether it be in psychology or something completely different. The beauty is that since psychology is so broad, the options are truly endless.
And I know that I’m not the only person in this boat of self-discovery. Whether it’s a fellow psych major, English major or even a biology major, we should be proud of what we are majoring in because if we aren’t proud and excited about it, how can we expect others to be?
While we may not have the answers to everyone’s questions, for now we can answer the questions we do know and smile about the rest because we will eventually figure them out.
And fortunately for us, we are in the right place for figuring things out.