Saint Rose Experiences: My Major Journey

Hey, do you know what you want to do for the rest of your life? Does the uncertainty scare you? Do you need some assistance in picking out your life plan? These are questions that would (and still do) scare the life out of me. In this blog, I’ll be talking about how I went about choosing my major.

For those who aren’t regular readers or maybe don’t even know me, I am an early childhood education major with a concentration in English. What would I like to do with a degree in education? Great question! I would like to become an elementary school teacher or possibly even an English teacher.

I did not come into college knowing that I wanted to teach. I mean, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I came into college completely open-minded, which is in my opinion how you should be in general. Just giving you a little life lesson here.

Anyway, I had been boggling ideas of majors before I arrived at the College. I might have mentioned this before but, initially, I was just about certain I was going to be a Communications major. After talking to my family and close friends about my choice at that time, I decided since I did not know as much as I should about the field, that I would come into college as an exploratory major, or as Amelia Evans has put it, the “ihavenoideawhatiwanttodowithmylifelolhelp” major. (Check out her posts, she’s awesome)

I remember being so skeptical about the whole thing. I wanted to at least feel like I had a grip on my life, which I now realize that I’ll never have a grip on my life. That’s a joke! I hope… In all seriousness, I felt like having a “determined” major would make me happy. Looking back, I can honestly say that going in as an exploratory major was one of the best things I have ever done. When I say that, I don’t just mean at Saint Rose, I mean EVER. Let me explain.

The exploratory program, in my opinion, is one of the greatest programs Saint Rose has to offer. My first semester freshmen year, I took the required course for the exploratory class and it has been one of the informational and helpful classes I have taken thus far. In the class, we essentially learned about ourselves. Right there, I’m sure that sounded SUPER cliché, but it’s true. Through several different activities we participated in each week, it definitely helped me to decide what I wanted to do.

Now, the story I am able to share with all of you readers is something that I have said in various student panels, on tours, or even just in everyday life so if you know me, there is a very good shot that you have heard this story. Here we go:

Like I said earlier, I had NO idea on what I wanted to do. I went to my advisor after a few weeks, hoping to God that she would be able to help me and luckily for me, she was able to. She pulled out a list of all the undergraduate programs with a “___” next to each major. We initially crossed out the majors I knew I either didn’t want or couldn’t do (like anything math heavy). Next, she explained each remaining to me, which ended up in a few more being crossed out.

After leaving her office, she handed me that list and I knew it was my job to figure out what I wanted to do from there. As each day went by, I crossed a few more off my list. Each day, along with the exploratory class, I moved closer and closer to the main goal: picking out a major.

Another step I took was taking the math placement test six times. Yeah you read that correctly, SIX times. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t limited because of my math score. My initial score was a 32 and I finished off with a 56. I guess, you could say that’s something to be proud of.

Every “failed” math placement test went on my wall to motivate me to do better. As you looked along my wall, you saw all those final test papers as well as that piece of paper with the majors on it. Finally, a few weeks before the first semester ended I decided to become an education major and I really could not be more happy with my choice.

Thank you for reading this week!