Number One: Choosing a College Major

This is the beginning of my exploration about the list "20 Things Not to Worry About Before You Turn 20". I liked the list so much that I'm going to make a blog post about each one of them as it pertains to my life. The first one, not worrying about "choosing a college major" really made me wonder whether I had chosen the right major and so I did some research on the "best" college majors. These were rated based on how easy it was to find employment after work, starting salaries, median salaries, and the expected growth in demand for these jobs over the next few years. Over and over again, engineering, math, and sciences topped the list. My own psychology major did not even come close. I briefly thought about majoring in statistics, but when I read a sample curriculum in a statistics course, it just boggled me. There was stuff there on doing mathematical analyses and something called biometry. As someone who is neither scientifically nor mathematically-minded, I knew that none of these majors were right for me. While they may have paid well and helped in finding employment, I knew that I would struggle taking those classes. What's more, I never would have been happy doing a job like that, no matter what the prestige or pay. In the end, I took a step back and really appreciated my major. It was analytical without being cerebral (unless we were talking about the brain), it was generalizable, and an easy subject to talk about with other people. I mean, how easy is it to talk about nuclear engineering with the average person? Psychology, on the other hand, can generate fascinating topics as well as be simple enough where the lay person can understand with just a little bit of background knowledge. After much thought, I was thoroughly appreciative of my major and the path it led me. Now I'm studying to be a social worker, and believe you me, it's much easier to understand social work if you've taken psychology before. Plus, for a long time, I've dreamt of counseling people and so psychology and social work seem like the best way to go. I'm glad I made those decisions after all.