Discovering and Creating Your Major

A lot of students entering college come in with a major in mind that they want to pursue. There are a wide variety of subjects students can study. Personally, I came in majoring in Elementary Education and Christian Education Leadership. At that time, I was studying to be a Director of Christian Education (DCE). I even had an internship for a summer at a church in Wichita.  

Now, I’m majoring in Psychology and Behavioral Science with plans to go to graduate school and study school counseling. Eventually, I hope to be a School Career Development Advisor.  

Quite the shift, huh? Well, it was a little after my internship as a DCE that I thought to switch to a different major. I liked the internship, but what I was really passionate about was career counseling and development. I also want to be in schools because I have some ideas that I believe could help the education system.  

I’ll be doing all this with a major in Psychology and Behavioral Science.  

What are majors anyway? Students with the same major can pursue a variety of careers. For example, people who are majoring in Psychology and Behavioral Science could easily go into statistical analysis, therapy, work for a non-profit, or a variety of other things.  

Some describe majors as umbrellas under which there are a variety of career options.  They’re right. Others may describe majors as a baseball team and the different positions on the team are different career options. They are also right.  For now though, let’s think of majors simply as they are: labels.  

We are all labeled by different things in life. It could be a variety of things, including but not limited to: class, race, sports teams, race, and jobs. Even though we all have many labels, not one labelled person is the same as another person with the same label. We all have our various unique interests and strengths. These are the things that bring color to the black and white label that we’re given.  

Here’s how you can enhance this color. Think of what you really want to do with the rest of your life. It may sound crazy, but don’t let that hold you back. Now imagine your future as specifically as you can. You can write, draw, or record your ideas however you may wish to do it, but make sure you have a record of it somewhere. Once you’ve thought of every detail that you can, look over what you’ve written, drawn, or however you kept note of it. Once you’ve done that, keep it somewhere where you’ll see it often.  

Now, once you get to college and choose a major, you’ll be put in a broad group based on your interest. These people will all be generally interested in the same things that you are interested in. The classes you’ll take may get at the broader ideas of what you want to do, but they likely won’t get to the core. I’d encourage you to seek things out that get to the core. These may be groups, books, or eventually, graduate school classes. One way or another, find some way to pursue what you want to do as directly as you can.  

That’s my tip for now. Take time to discover your specific goal for the future and then pursue it as precisely as you can. Things to suit your specific interests won’t necessarily be handed out to you. You must seek them out and pursue them yourself. Pursue them relentlessly. 
 

To end, I’ll leave you with some questions for reflection. 

-What do you want to do with your life? 
 

-What is available to prepare for this? 

-How will you pursue this preparation?