Making some Major Changes

As an incoming freshman, I had no idea what I wanted to do after college or what type of classes I would enjoy during my time in college. However, I did know that I never wanted to answer the constant "what's your major" question with only one word: undecided. 

While faculty and peers will tell you "it's okay to be undecided as a freshman," I couldn't bare the thought. I'll admit, it is perfectly normal freshmen to be undecided but, being a person who has always known what I wanted, not knowing scared me. So, I decided to major in something I enjoyed, journalism.

That is until I took my first Communications class, Human Communications. Once I gave my first presentation in the classroom I knew I wanted to do something later in life that involved public speaking rather than writing or broadcasting. This realization led me to switch my major to a broader communications field: Strategic Communications.

Freshmen year was easier than high school for me. I thought to myself, "why do people complain about college?" Then came fall semester of sophomore year and I realized why people said that when I was overwhelmed with projects, tests, and my extracurricular activities. 

When I began to create my spring semester schedule, I came to another realization: it gets harder.

As I was talking with my advisor, I decided to switch on to the new track for my major. I would no longer have a degree in Communications with a concentration in Strategic Communications. Now my degree will simply state Strategic Communications when I graduate. 

What I didn't realize at the time was this also meant taking 6 classes a semester. As a student who has only taken 4 classes at a time throughout my college career, this semester has been a challenge for me.

As of today, we have been in classes for almost 5 weeks and I still have not mastered my schedule and keep a picture of it pulled up on my laptop so I won't miss a class. Three of the classes I am in only meet once a week and all on different days, this has forced me to be more organized with my school work and schedule than ever before. This was very overwhelming for me the first few weeks of school. 

 

I know, college is supposed to be difficult to prepare you for the "real world" and I should have known it would be hard going in and there are majors more difficult than mine and so on. 

So far, I am really enjoying my major and I am learning something new every day in my classes, which I appreciate. However, at the end of the day I still feel overwhelmed with classes and class assignments. Perhaps if I can get comfortable taking 6 classes a semester, all focusing on different subjects, then when I do make it to the "real world" I won't feel overwhelmed anymore.