Hey!
I entered high school thinking that I was FOR SURE going to pursue a path regarding medicine. So, now in my junior year, I’ve taken a huge amount of science courses, all in preparation of this.
But…I think I’m having a serious change of heart.
A few months back I was scrolling through CC posts and I came across on regarding passion. I read the post, and over the next week or so thought about what I actually wanted to do. I love language and have always thought of it as a fun pass time (case in point: over the summer I would teach myself Russian or Chinese, then decided on a whim to skip a few grades in my Spanish class, completing AP Spanish as a sophomore). I started helping out as an ESL volunteer (mainly used Spanish, some Russian when I could) and always came back from the meetings absolutely overjoyed. And it isn’t just the language itself–the culture, the history-everything that was behind the dialects fascinates me.
Of course, now I have a problem. I’ve been so focused on a career in medicine that classes that actually interested me were pushed aside. Since testing out of Spanish last year, I now am only studying Chinese…amongst a million science and math classes, all of which are somewhat interesting but kind of feel like a chore.
I’m so, so grateful that I’m discovering this part of myself early on, but are those years taking science and math classes all wasted? I understand that they’re necessary in order to get into college; I just don’t think they should be my focus.
This coming semester I am submitting a proposal to pursue an independent study, hopefully regarding poverty in South or Central America, which I am SO EXCITED ABOUT!! But is it enough? I fear colleges will see me as a person who’s unsure about her niche–why would I do so much with science when my true interests lie within language and culture?
(Side note–what majors are available for people with my interests? My mom didn’t help, said international relations was the only thing I could do.)
I am so sorry for how disorganized this post is!
If you have some advice, please comment! 