Picking A Major
I stress over decisions. Especially big decisions. I put them off. I dread them. I make them bigger than they need to be. Picking a major was no different.
I tried on a few different majors for size. Marine Biology seemed like a pipe dream, English was too subjective, Child Development made me hate “the system” more than ever. I’m a person with varied interests and skills, so it felt like there was no clear choice for me. But credits were adding up and I knew I had to make a decision soon. Soon as in - now.
I’m not a pros and cons list kind of person. I don’t have a dream career. I’m a free spirited bookworm who dances in the kitchen and harbors a fascination with life. I knew that half of the answer was within me and the other half of the answer was out there somewhere… I just had to get them together.
So I began The List.
The list of everything that I am. Everything I love, everything that has made me happy, everything that has challenged me.
I’ve already attended six-ish semesters of college so I started with some of my Favorite Classes: American Lit, Intro to Education, Marriage & Family Relations and Biology 101&102 all made the cut.
Since American Lit was a favorite it’s obvious that I love to read. However, there’s a difference between weekend reads and those books that I become connected to and intertwined with. These made it onto the list of my Favorite Books: Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, etc.
A list of my Favorite Activities followed: backpacking, kayaking, camping, dancing, cooking, adventuring, researching, sewing, being wildly and upriotously in love with deciduous trees.
So far the lists are pretty easy and universal. Most people can identify their favorite classes, books or activities. (I’d like to mention before continuing that “favorite” is a word I should probably replace with: Most mind altering, most influential, most challenging, most rewarding. For ease, I’ll continue to use favorite, just be aware of my true meaning.) Moving from there, I started to focus on more personal parts of my experience. I listed favorite people I’ve associated with, favorite scriptures, favorite experiences - such as my shiitake mushroom experience detailed in a previous post. Intermittently, I included words or phrases that seemed to resonate with myself and my goal. Mine included, “create home,” “come to the assistance of life,” “infinitely creative,” “plan of happiness,” “it doesn’t matter what you do but how you do it”, centered, aware, transform, grow, challenge and stretch.
Looking over those words and phrases one always seemed to stick out - Plan of Happiness. We’re here on this earth to have joy. If our purpose is meant to align with the purpose of our Creator (to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man) then wouldn’t the experiences that bring us the most joy also be those that best serve the purposes of God?
At this point things just started falling together. I had gathered information, I was starting to make connections and see patterns, and I felt energized.
Time for work - Part 2 soon?
