I’ve thought long and hard about what this New Year could bring advice wise. I’ll be starting my second semester of my junior year.. so it isn’t like there is a new start to the year, more like a return. Along the lines of resolutions, there is always the typical “study harder, pay more attention, be more proactive”. But what does it really mean to start anew during such a difficult time in college…
I refer to this period as the most difficult because junior year is really when you crack down on the decision to stay in your major. After the second semester of sophomore year when you’re commonly required to declare, first semester of junior year is really when your up to bat. Especially if you had some reservations of declaration to begin with. IF the core classes for your major go splat against your brain wall, you’ve realized there is little time to really switch to a major you don’t have many credits towards. This has happened to a friend of mine (no, really. she was a psychology major with most of her credits going towards the major after the first half of junior year. Then she lost her passion after one a 300 level class could not grab her attention so she tapered off grade wise and impacted her major GPA..)
My previous post addressed the uncertainty into picking a major. Sometimes you just don’t know so it turns into this shot in the dark. TBH as you progress through college, it seems like all decisions are made with a slight metaphorical blindfold. Then I realized what my advice should be: TRUST YOURSELF IN THE DECISIONS YOUR MAKE TOWARDS PICKING WHAT INTERESTS YOU.
Whether it be art, language, math, or history, really pursue and push yourself to accomplish something in that field and trust in your passion for the subject to carry you through courses and classes. It is hard to discern what interests your versus what should be interesting to you. I guess this is targeted more towards rising freshmen and sophomores. Listen to the old upperclassman haha
The New Year’s resolutions you make for yourself should be more applicable than studying harder or paying more attention.. It should be enlightened by what you really want to study. A resolution like: “I will study what I love. I WILL AT LEAST TAKE SOME CLASSES FOR WHAT I LOVE.” brings tears to my eyes. The curiosity and love behind the thought is exactly what education should be driven by–learning through passion and actual interest. The lucky ones are the math and engineering majors because of their love of tinkering. haha but when i see amazing art displays from the intro to art classes painted by geology majors that see more “value” in earth sciences than artistic expression is truly heart wrenching; BUT they pursued it on the side, they made time to keep up with their interests and that is what counts.
When college really clamps down, you forget about what you used to do for fun because time slips away. Again, I have kind of lucked out from this because I am passionate about my geology-environmental studies major. My interests started my junior year of high school and carried forward to my first intro to geo class that encapsulated everything i loved into one subject that did not consider previously because most high schoolers consider the classical studies for major. Not specifically named geology in a high school course, rather maybe earth science–and that isn’t a major but that is what geology is..
So strive to be ever more true to your ambitions. Don’t downplay your interests to fit into a category–you could be the first art-politics major in your college! Whitman has many odd majors, which indicates the amount of students who are pursuing what they love despite the stark difference of their two passions.
Don’t let the child within you settle to accept a subject, alter the subject to keep your inner child engaged and constantly learning.
Happy New Year, may yours be blessed with a bit more motivation to not procrastinate. Thanks for reading.