It’s that time of the semester again. Lou’s List is updated. Advisors have sent out emails for advising session sign-ups. We’re six short weeks until the end. Naturally, rather than being focused on our current classes, our attention shifts to classes we aren’t even in! Semi-ironic, huh? Personally, this is one of the most stressful times during the semester; not only does it remind me of the impending future, but one oversight and I’m off-track to graduate.
Transfer students have it even worse — rather than the standard four years to plan, transfers tend to have only two or three to fulfill the University’s requirements. Being a third-year transfer student myself, I was worried about this. Luckily, I planned well.
When I first arrived at the University, there was some kind of miscommunication. I was told that I would not have time to earn both a major and minor in only two years. Several different professors told me this, so I stopped pursuing classes in American Sign Language. In retrospect, it was my fault. I didn’t do any extra research. I just accepted what professors told me. As it turns out, I only need 10 credits to fulfill my major, but 33 more to graduate from the University.
Those 23 remaining credits are enough for a minor, right?
These past few weeks, ever since Lou’s List was updated, I’ve spent hours browsing and saving courses that either fulfill a major requirement, potential minor requirement or seemed semi-related to my field of interest. Let me say, there are a lot of classes offered at the University, but the ones that I needed were all found at Curry — speech-hearing, kinesiology and special education.
Not only that, but looking at all these different classes makes me wonder if I chose the right major. Sure, health care is definitely the field I want to pursue, but is speech pathology what I want to specialize in? Is it what I want to do for the rest of my life? You know, some children fantasize about being president or an astronaut, but all I wanted to be was a writer. I used to write articles for a pretend newspaper that only ever circulated around my family. I used to write in a journal almost every night and stories that spanned pages and pages. Still, a career as a writer isn’t as safe as a career as a speech-language pathologist — right?
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know what the right choice is — whether students should pursue their dream jobs or a safer alternative — but I do know that it’s important to remain optimistic and to tackle all classes with hard work and curiosity. While this doubtfulness makes class registration stressful, we should embrace and trust in the decisions we have made for ourselves. Not only will this make us happier, but it will ease the registration process.
It makes sense that this process is a difficult and stressful one. After all, we are building the foundations of our future, one class at a time. Still, it’s important not to lose sight of what’s important: to take classes, join clubs and declare a major that we enjoy. The prospect of a future in an area we enjoy makes everything just a little bit less scary and a little bit more exciting.
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