My College Major List and Metatext

 biology
 psychology
 communication studies with a business minor
 education
 journalism
 English
 business
 interior design
 design studies with a communication studies minor

I’ve changed my major a lot of times. So far I have everyone beat who tries to go up against me for more numerous. That I’ve changed my mind so many times is not a source of pride for me, but that I was able to when I felt the need is a big part of my life. That I’m a well-rounded student is a source of pride for me, and that I’m a less prejudice, more confident person because of my various experiences is also a good reason to remember this list.
My list also sounds poetic when recited, especially with an air of slight haste and in chronological order. To make them a multimedia presentation, I would enter them in Windows Movie Maker as titles. The minors would be in the secondary, smaller title spots where they are applicable. Pictures of the kind of job I thought might become of each major would be shown as the background in correspondence with their major. The soundtrack for the list could be related to my moods and attitudes during and toward each major experience. To make the list the main focus, the titles could be stretched out to stay on the screen longer or, in addition to that, be repeated in some fashion. The list could start over for every new major, for example, biology, biology, psychology, biology, psychology, communication studies with a business minor, showing the expanded foundation trailing behind each new choice.
Biology was going to be for genetics. “What do you picture yourself doing?” they’d ask me in junior high, “working in a lab?” ….Yes? I liked doing Punnet squares and learning about what gene combinations would present as what traits in plants and human eyes and things. This was seventh grade science class with a teacher who taught in my exact learning style, plus I was Hermine Granger at school in junior high. High school biology, chemistry and physics was not as much fun as Punnet squares but didn’t dissuade me, so college rolled around, and my major declaration was pre-biology.
I squeaked by with a C in my first college biology class, and getting dismayed by how much we had to kill things to complete a lab assignment and by my obvious vagueness on what I’d even be doing, I lost motivation. I failed my second semester biology class. It was too hard. Concepts were over my head to heights at which maybe a butterfly could reach if we hadn’t killed it as a caterpillar in bio lab. It was during this year, I remember because I was in the hallway of my dorm, that I told my mom on the phone that I thought I should be a professional organizer. After laughing at me, she sobered up when she realized that I was serious and asked what major I’d have to be in to go into that, “Interior Design?” I was horrified at the prospect.
Psychology was an interesting subject. In high school one of the college classes I took was Psychology 101. Now I think, who’s not interested in psychology a little bit? Around this time is when I took my first career assessment/interest inventory test. That thing had the gull to tell me that I’m not interested in anything. I had no interest strong enough to read above the others. This may have been when I started to blame my parents for my situation. I had done what they told me to do for years and years, and now I was lost not knowing what I wanted to do. I’ll tell you what I wanted to do, party.
Communication studies, after one semester of psychology, was my next major with a business minor so I could run my own business, but probably more so I could party. Classes got more frustrating with their seemingly pointlessness, and I fantasized more and more about dropping out. Unlike in junior high and high school, where I spent my spare time stressing about what exactly teachers needed from me to give me an A, I simply did the work and took the grade. There was an English class during this time in which I did well. My grades were generally falling, though. I still hadn’t found my own motivation.
Education was declared at WVU-Parkersburg. What would have been my third year of college was spent in Morgantown as were the previous two years, but by two thirds into that Fall semester I had stopped going to classes completely. There was supposed to be a fun poetry one that wasn’t what I expected like so many other classes before. I finally took a whole semester off and just worked that Spring. When my lease was up, I moved back in with my parents in Parkersburg. Teaching would be perfect, summers off. I stayed in classes that semester but dropped my education one before I had to go spend time in actual elementary school classrooms.
Journalism would be for the next semester it was decided. My first classes were mind-numbingly about the intricacies of printing machinery. Terrified, I withdrew from another whole semester before it would even show up on my transcript.
English came from a different angle. I would have to get through the classes to graduate from a major and get a job, and English classes were always the calmest classes for me to attend. My next English class, however, reminded me that class-time for English class is fine, yes, but all that reading, and for this one, all those interpretations. I’m not sure this major ever even got declared, because I couldn’t do anymore English classes.
Business came from another angle still. I went to my advisor and asked for the fastest way out. I knew I just had to stick with something, and by this time I knew all of it would be excruciating. So, what would be the least amount of pain I would have to take to look down and see a degree in my hand? I was told that I had enough business classes to graduate with an associate’s degree in two more semesters. Sign me up. After a semester of business classes, I was told it would be two semesters from that point. I didn’t even try to clarify who made the mistake. I left the advisor’s office and didn’t sign up for the next semester of classes.
Interior Design was my finally admitting that I am a prissy little girl who likes to watch HGTV with her mama and wants to play house for a living. I moved all back to Morgantown with perhaps even enough gathered motivation to tackle this four-year program. If it’s what I can honestly see myself doing, this major could work where I had failed with others. Signing up for the program, I’m made aware that it is competitive and only 20 people are accepted each year. My motivation said, well, we’ve come this far.
My motivation killed me for a year with art history and style eras and craft projects the likes of which I had never encountered. Along the way though, we 60 or so “cohorts” of Interior Design 2006 were receivers of the announcement that there would be a possible new alternative for students rejected from the program. They would continue on with the same basic set of classes, only steering the program more toward the chosen minor field. I was eyeing the writing minors long before the group of 20 was selected excluding me.
One of the minors that surfaced as an option in this beginning phase was Communication Studies. English is what I was going to pick as my minor, but it didn’t end up being one of the five or six ready at that point in the major’s creation. But Communication Studies was set up with the same magazine writing purpose.
So now after some serious negotiation between my advisor/the final say on what classes are acceptable for what requirements, a required summer internship and another year and a half of classes, I’m going to be one of three first ever graduates of the Design Studies program.
This semester has been my favorite bunch of classes ever. Not only am I two thirds through this last semester but also I can see the way out. With this list I have the map of what I’ve learned; life gets better with design.