Anthony D’Angelo once said “Don’t fear change, embrace it.” As beautiful a thing as this is to say, I’ve found it somewhat of a scary thing to actually apply. Initially with change may come uncertainty, adjustment, and a lot of other things it would be easier to simply not deal with. In a university setting, many changes occur—students are often facing changes in their homes, their friends, their classes, etc., and this is all considered to be a “normal” part of the “college experience.” But, for me at least, there seemed to be this stigma around “change” when it came to changing a college major. I remember when I entered college, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do—what I was going to major in, where I wanted to work, and I had this really nice and pretty plan laid out in my head. I thought people who didn’t have the same plan, or who changed their majors, didn’t know what they were doing or what they wanted and were just wasting their time. I was also afraid of the thought of changing my major—what if it meant I couldn’t graduate on time? What if it was a reflection of the way I make decisions in my life? What if I picked the wrong major? And among all the other changes that were happening to me as a new college student, I was confident that changing my major would not be one of them.
Now, almost three years later, I have changed my major… twice.
I can’t lie—both times I switched majors were clouded with nerves, fear, and uncertainty. I began questioning myself and wondering if I was ever going to find something I enjoyed doing. I was afraid of what my future might look like because of my decision, afraid of what could be said about me because I couldn’t seem to pinpoint what I wanted to do, and overall I just felt a lot of anxiety about the whole situation. However when I went to Career Services, as I did on both occasions, my nerves were almost instantly soothed. After talking with the staff there, I felt at ease and confident in my decisions and I came to embrace the major change I was making by changing my major. I learned that changing my major was not a bad thing. It didn’t make me a bad person, it didn’t mean I wasn’t smart enough to know what I wanted to do or that I was wasting my time—what it did mean is that I allowed myself to pursue what I loved, and it taught me a great lesson about change in life.
Looking back, I’ve faced a lot of changes in my college years. I’ve lived in three different places. I’ve driven two different cars. I’ve taken 41 different classes and had 35 different professors. I’ve worked 4 jobs and had 4 different bosses… it has become blatantly obvious to me that change is a necessary and inevitable part of life. Does that always make it easy to deal with? Absolutely not. Does it make it any less scary? Not always. But does that mean that I should run from change? No. Sometimes change brings us some of life’s greatest opportunities. Without change, where would any of us be? Perhaps with this knowledge and from our own life experiences, we can begin to live Anthony D’Angelo’s words and change our attitudes about change.
Written by Sarah, senior Finance major