Changing majors Options

[Melissa]

This is kind of hard for me. All my life, I've been told that I was going to be a doctor. Yeah, I enjoyed anatomy class in high school, I really liked interning for an ENT, I would live an excellent life as a doctor, it sounded like a good plan so I went with it.

The thing is, I'm not really interested in it. I hate chemistry, biology, AND physics. I'm trying to be a Neuroscience and Behavior major because I thought I would be interested in psychology and because its requirements overlap with the premed requirements. And yeah, I do like psych, except it isn't enough to make me actually want to go to class. I have no motivation for it whatsoever.

I was thinking about this through the span of the year and feel that I really ... don't want to be a doctor. I'm more interested in writing and studying human rights, sociology, maybe even political science. The problem is that ALL of my classes I took this entire year go toward the premed/psych path and I'm not sure if it would be wise to switch at this point.

I'm going to email my dean about this and see if it would work out, but then there's the parents to worry about. My mom is crazy and I highly doubt she'll pay my tuition if I decide not to be premed. The one time I brought it up, she bitched at me, saying that if I wanted to "waste my life," I should've just gone to Baylor (I got a full ride there, but seriously... BAYLOR??) instead of choosing Columbia, which is expensive as f**k.

I just know that if I look ten years into my life, I see myself as a journalist, an author, something that has to do with writing and debating. Maybe even a lawyer. I DON'T see me working in an operating room and being on-call nearly 24/7. It's just not me.

I don't know. This is sort of a rant... and me wanting encouragement. I'm not sure how I'll work through this.

[queen]

if you had asked this four years ago i would've told you to go with what your heart says and switch majors now.

but having personally gone through that mistake more than once, i think it's better for you to pursue your career as a doctor. really, it's not that bad is it? obviously, you have the brains for it, and up to this point, you've had the determination and discipline to take on this path. it could be you're just having the typical college jitters about your future.

my aunt used to tell me, "it's just a few years of stress, pain, and no sleep." and i used to think that was crazy. but if you think about it, you're really lucky to be in the position you're in now. you can't even imagine how many students switch onto other majors to "find" themselves, only to want to get back into premed.

i highly regret switching paths, and honestly, if i had stayed on premed, i would probably be doing my residency right now.

of course i agree that being a doctor is not for everyone, but once you finish, you could work for a couple years, save a shitload of money, and then pursue whatever the hell you want. isn't it better to have that kind of advantage than to be one of those people who aren't in your position and don't have the luxury to even consider this lifestyle? and you're in columbia! i mean it's not even that you're in some community college taking credits in order to pursue premed. you're already where a lot of people want to be. you should really take that into consideration.

sometimes you just gotta take the harder road for a while in order to get what you truly want out of life. i can speak for more than a handful of my personal friends who are also faced with this dilemma, and we all say, "i wish i listened to my parents."

and about this whole wanting to do what you "really want" in life --in the real world, this rarely exists. people don't know what they want to do even after they already think they know what they wanna do. how would you know that a year into journalism if you won't hate it? how would you know that a year being in the operating room you won't actually feel enlightened and satisfied with your line of work? i no longer believe in "being what you really want to be" because from my experience, and the experience of many others, there's no such thing. there are always gonna be hard times in your life. there are always gonna be some happy times. what i've learned the most, however, is that the people who pursued something they thought they didn't want are happier than most of the people who are doing what they believed they love. happiness isn't just about doing something that interests you. it's about having the stability to support yourself in any situation and having the means to have the freedom to do whatever you want. so i guess in the end, i do believe (for the most part) that money=happiness.