What I've Learned Being Five Majors
Yes, you read the title correctly, I have been five different majors. While the following list of titles I have been at one time or another is longer than most, I have found this journey of finally settling on what words I want on my diploma to be exhilarating. I've been blessed with the opportunity to learn more about all of these topics, while staying on track to graduating and discovering new passions along the way.
Music | One semester as a piano performance major led me to spend more hours at the seat of a baby grand piano than I will ever be blessed with, unless I someday have the joy of buying my own baby grand. I have been playing piano from the majority of my life. I remember reading music before reading books. Being a music major gave me the opportunity to take classes like Music Theory, Ear Training, Choir, and private piano lessons. I enjoyed being a music major because all of my classes applied to each other in a very tangible way. As my aural skills improved, my sight reading in choir improved. As my comprehensive knowledge of theory improved, my ability to play piano pieces with greater depth and variation improved. I still enjoy playing piano, singing, and all things music. Being a music major just wasn't for me, I didn't see a future in music, or necessarily want a professional future in music.
Art | This is the major I held for the longest period of time. First, I would like to note how thankful I am to have parents who supported me as a music and art major, seeing an education in a field where I could very likely wind up as a "starving artist" a worthy pursuit. Art is a large part of who I am. Art helps me process life, it gives me a voice when I feel like I have none, and I enjoy the creative process with a passion. Being an art major consisted of long hours making art to meet professors desires of content and medium. In theory, this is a wonderfully important thing in learning to be an artist. But for me, it fostered a growing feeling of being suffocated, of being in this thing I loved yet feeling I wasn't being able to create as I knew I desired to. I learned many new techniques and was exposed to forms of art and opportunities I would never have had if I had not been an art major. But again, as much as I loved art, I didn't love being an art major. I saw the possibility of being an art major destroying my love of art, so I changed my major.
Communications | I held this major for all of a month and a half, never actually making it far enough to take classes for a Communications major. The change from Art to Communications was a crucial change for me because it was the first stepping stone I landed on after deciding I could no longer be an art major. It signifies the bravery it took for me to drop what had been my identity for almost two years, "The Art Major." I changed to Comm, signed up for a following semester full of Comm classes, then changed again. Comm equipped me with the bravery to make the courageous, often criticized, decision of changing my major.
Liberal Studies | I went in to Liberal Studies thinking I would like to teach someday, but it not being the only thing I want to do, or the first thing I want to do. I am passionate about education, so why not, I thought. Here's why I am not a Liberal Studies major any more: history. I looked at the class list for Liberal Studies, many of which were history, and I thought to myself, "Wow, I've hated taking classes in this subject the entirety of my education career, but college could be different." Nope. I appreciate history, but the history classes I was in reminded me of how little I thrive learning these facts. I did not feel a great call to teaching or a great enough desire to fight through many more units of these classes. It may seem superficial, but being on the other side of it I am glad I changed because I was given the space to invest in other areas of my life besides the memorization of facts and aiding in a classroom.
English | Here we are, the final frontier. There is a lot of unknown with being an English major. There is also a lot of known. I know literature has been a constant joy and passion in my life since a young age, I use books I've read as road markers for my life. I know I have found a passion for writing, as is evident in this blog. I know I go to books in times of stress and upheaval, they seem to remain constant. What will I do with this major? I don't know. But I do know it felt like a hot air balloon touching down onto solid ground when I changed to English, a feeling of settling on something confidently, with a sense of security.
I am a wild child, an adventurous spirit, a conglomeration of many passions/hates/talents/weaknesses/stories/feelings/facts/memories looking for a landing place in this world and taking my time to find it.
The world is bright and beautiful, filled with simple joys like Up movie nights on the lawn with good food and good people. Highly unrelated, but it was a bright spot during my break down of deciding to change to English.
