Adult Learning

Image Source: http://brandywine.psu.edu/Admissions/adult.htm

With the economic climate of the last 5 years being relatively dismal, mature learners have been returning to secondary education in unprecedented numbers. This is great, but going back to college or university is much more complicated than it was when you were just out of High School and much in higher education has changed today. Now your busy schedule makes finding the time to study difficult. Many students find themselves feeling incredibly stressed and under enormous pressure when studying. The question is why?

There is a plethora of contributing factors to adult student stress:
·        Family responsibilities take up time and energy

·        Part time or full-time jobs require your attention

·        Having had a successful career, you put too much pressure on yourself to be the ‘perfect’ student

·        Study methods you learned in school don’t work with modern teaching techniques

·        You have not kept abreast of technological advancements

·        There are gaps in your knowledge base as you have lost things you learned at school

If you are feeling overwhelmed and stressed, then consider getting a tutor. Learning centers are generally provided by each educational institution, but are often staffed by other students who may not have the skills to recognize your academic needs or help you to organize your life. You also have to make appointments and fit in with learning center schedules. Study groups are also an option but tend to be course specific.

Tutor are trained to recognise your strengths and weaknesses. They are able to help you to organize your time more effectively so that you have enough time for all the things in your life that require your attention. They will help you to study smarter, not harder.

Tutor are also able to fill gaps in your knowledge or review things that you learned in school, but have since forgotten. This will give you a stable foundation on which to build. Tutors can also teach techniques to improve concentration and memory so that you remember more of what you learn.

Study skills, research skills and writing are all paramount in presenting essays and assignments that are well-organized and grammatically correct. No matter how thorough a grasp of the material you may have, if you are not able to present your arguments and research well, your grades will suffer. Tutors are able to work with you on assignments and essays to improve your communication skills. Tutors can also be mentors as you go through higher level degree work such as Masters and PhD’s. There they can often keep you on track and provide a sounding board for your ideas. This proves especially important in writing your thesis or dissertation.

Choose a tutor that suits your personality. Find one that comes to you and fits in with your busy schedule to simplify your life. Find a tutor that is an expert in your field so that you benefit from the very best advice.

Measure your results so that you can tell if your investment in a tutor is paying off. Set realistic goals so that you have a sense of achievement and are able to feel more relaxed and confident about your studies. Investing in a tutor may be the very best thing you decide to do in your academic career and helps to keep your sanity!

Roommate Troubles

In honor of the beginning of moving into dorm season as well as my own relocation to a new apartment with a new roommate, I’ve decided to write a post that outlines my experiences with roommates through a few tips I’ve learned. I’ve lived with eleven people over the past five years, in various combinations of numbers and in different living situations, from double dorm rooms to a triple dorm. I’ve also spent the past year living by myself in a one bedroom apartment. So learn from my mistakes and feel free to add any of your own experiences!

What’s Mine Is Yours(?)

There were lots of things I didn’t think I would mind sharing when I first went off to college. It wasn’t the first time I’d ever shared a bedroom, but it was the first time that other person hadn’t been one of my siblings. The final straw with my freshman year roommate came with the hairbrush incident, in which I returned to the room to find hair that was obviously not mine tangled up in my hairbrush. Having definite lines about what you will and won’t share in a roommate situation is important. In my best living situation, in which food was involved, we each had our own cupboard and had to share a mini fridge and freezer, but we made it very clear from the beginning that we weren’t to use each other’s food without explicit permission. When it came to dishes or utensils or pots and pans, however, the agreement was simply that if you used it you had to wash it and return it. Setting up boundaries early in the relationship means you can avoid having hurt feelings later, and you can always address issues as they come up, which brings me to my next point.

Communication is Key

There are always going to be roommate disputes, and when you shove three teenage girls in a very small space with all their belongings, problems are bound to come up. What frequently happened my sophomore year of college was the ganging up effect, in which two roommates would commiserate about something the third roommate was doing and rather than having a discussion would start an argument that would end with a lot of hurt feelings. If we had been reasonable and sat down to have discussions rather than putting each other constantly on trial, our relationship would have gone much more smoothly.

Be Assertive

Moving away from home for the first time was stressful enough, but when I got to my freshman dorm room to find that my roommate had taken the best mattress, the best desk, the best chair, AND the side of the room that had the window, my emotions ran high. Rather than discussing any of these issues, however, I simply let them slide and let them breed eventual resentment. Don’t let issues fester, and don’t constantly be the one compromising by default. Bring up things that concern you and give the other person a chance to address the problem rather than assuming the worst.

Be (Y)Our Guest

Guests can be tricky, especially if you’re living in a situation where your sleeping area is also your common/socializing area. When I woke up one night to find a stranger in my roommate’s bed it quickly became clear that she had crossed a line and we had to deal with the situation. Whether it’s about guests spending the night or staying into the early hours of the morning, these decisions should be discussed without the guests present to overhear the conversation.

Can’t We Just Be Friends?

Sometimes you won’t be friends with your roommate, and that’s okay. It certainly is a lot funner to be great friends with your roommate, and I definitely recommend it if at all possible. Certainly don’t attempt to alienate your roommate, in any case. However, the roommate relationship is just as important as the friendship, and you can’t ignore roommate problems in favor of the friendship, because eventually the resentment will boil over and cause problems. Finding the friend/roommate balance can be tricky, but if you prioritize both relationships you’ll find a way to make it work.

Living with people has been a great experience for me. I’ve had some of my worst arguments with roommates as well as found some of my very best friends. Hopefully you’ll be able to avoid some of the more traumatic experiences I had by following these tips! Of course, you should always feel safe in your living space, and if your roommate seriously violates your right to feeling safe, you should talk to your Resident Advisor.

So what are your tips for living with someone new?

Career Education

One of my biggest complaints about the education system in America today is the lack of career education. As someone who is entering the job market after nearly 20 years of education, I still feel uncertain about what jobs I am qualified for, and what jobs I would be interested in. Better career education in high schools would mean that students could focus on relevant courses in high school and beyond. If subject teachers gave more information about potential careers for students interested in those fields, there would be fewer students who feel lost in college.

Sure, choosing a career should be a combination of what a person is passionate about as well as the skills they have, but the demands of the job market should also be taken into account. Increased career education can also help people to specialize in fields they are interested in. For example, students interested in medicine don’t have to necessarily become doctors or nurses. They could become medical researchers, pharmacists, patient advocates, or a plethora of other careers in the medical field.

The Longest Walk of Your Life

I’ve had three semi-official graduations in my life. I say semi-official because to me, a graduation isn’t a graduation without one of those hideous mortar board caps, and my first graduation, a moving-up day from the intermediate school to the high school, was cap and gown free. From my vague memories of sixth-grade graduation, I remember singing a song that had been written by former students about transitioning and growing-up, and I remember receiving a few awards and shaking hands with some adults. Overall, the experience has not proved particularly memorable.

(Image Credit:http://www.palisadespreschooldc.org/2012/05/graduation-day-is-coming/)

My second graduation came six years later, as I sat in the front row of my high school graduation. At this graduation, everyone wore caps and gowns. In a display of what I consider sexism, the boys wore forest green caps and gowns, while the girls wore white. Before you freak out and decide that I’m just a crazy feminist, I would like to point out that the girl’s gowns were entirely see-through, so while the boys could wear whatever they liked under their gowns, the girls were more limited if they didn’t want to look ridiculous. My gown, however, wasn’t even my biggest problem. That dubious honor went to the cap and my giant head. I had shown up to graduation with my hair wet, and between my lack of hair clips and the humidity, my hair quickly puffed into an unmanageable halo that resisted every attempt made at keeping my cap steady. Most of the pictures from the day involve my cap half-off my head, or my head held at an awkward angle in a desperate attempt to retain some dignity.

My third graduation was from college. This time, all the gowns were the same, and my cap actually managed to stay on my head. (As an interesting and depressing side note, when I had gotten my head measured for the cap it was confirmed that I had one of the largest heads in my class of over 100 people. Talk about a boost for your esteem). I hadn’t cried at my first two graduation ceremonies, but at this ceremony I bawled from beginning to end. The commencement address is something that I will probably remember for the rest of my life, whereas what was said at my sixth-grade graduation or even my high school graduation has entirely left my memories.

I like to think that the reason I cried at my college graduation was that I had grown-up in those four years, and I realized that time is not something that you can get back. As a child, you spend so much of your time waiting to grow-up and be older and be able to drive or stay out past 10 or cross the street without holding an adult’s hand that you miss out on the simple joy of being a child. For the first time, as I walked down to the rows of chairs on that May afternoon in 2011, I realized all of these things. You can’t go back, and the future isn’t always exciting. Sometimes, the future is uncertain and terrifying, and a diploma and a bunch of flowers wasn’t enough to stop my own breakdown.

My little sister will probably have triple the amount of graduations I had. Today, she had her pre-kindergarten graduation. They played the graduation march as she and her 15 classmates trooped through the gymnasium doors and filed onto the stage. They wore tiny graduation robes, all in matching white, with tiny graduation caps with tiny tassels on their heads. As they sang their songs up on stage, I watched their tiny faces. Some of the kids were ecstatic at the attention, swaying back and forth and screeching the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Other kids, like my sister, were more subdued. But it was the kids who seemed the most uncertain that I empathized with. The pageantry of graduation is, in many ways, a celebration, but it is more the celebration of an ending than a beginning. In spite of the many promises to “see you next year in kindergarten,” the diplomas being given were for the year that had passed. My sister will never be in that place in her life again. And that is both joyful and incredibly sad. I watched my sister and her classmates walk across the stage where they shook hands with the school administrators and their teacher, and they walked alone. Nobody held their hand. The steps that they took were independent, though the shoes that they wore seemed impossibly small.

So enjoy the graduation season. There will undoubtedly be parties and festivities and there is plenty to be glad about. Just don’t look for me…I’ll be the one crying in the corner over my slice of cake.

 

Things I Wish I Would’ve Heard at Graduation (High School Edition)

Turn your tassel and your attitude when you graduate from high school! (Image Credit: http://www.newsargus.com/news/archives/2009/05/29/24_seniors_turn_tassels_at_wayne_early_middle_college/)

Don’t Just Do What You’re Good At (Because You Might Surprise Yourself) 

By the time I graduated from high school, I had a rigid idea of what I could and could not do. I could do history, English, and drama. I could not do math and science. These ideas, of what I was and was not capable of, guided my initial college course selection. My first semester of school, I took courses I thought I would do well in. Introduction to Drama, Introduction to English Literature, Introduction to Education, and other courses. I not only decided to take courses I thought I would do well in with the minimum of effort, but I also chose a major and a minor based on my limited knowledge of the world and what I thought I could do as an adult. As it turns out, there are more career options for kids who are good at school than simply becoming teachers. Unfortunately, it took me my entire college career to figure that out. And those rigid ideas of what I thought I could and couldn’t do? I got a B+ in my Intro to English Lit course, and an A+ in the Biology course I took my junior year. Go figure.

Loosen Up 

In some ways, being uptight brought me good grades in college. However, there was a heavy price. I struggled to get along with my roommates in our small shared space (of which there were seven total over the course of 4 years), and I avoided a lot of social activities in favor of getting discussion questions written or a book chapter finished. Sure, college is a time for studying and buckling down, and young adulthood in general is a time to start becoming responsible. Forming social bonds are equally important, however, and loosening up is a good way to make friends.

Join Up

My favorite part of college happened outside the classroom, through my involvement with different clubs. In high school, I had joined a lot of clubs and done a lot of extracurriculars as a way to pad my college application. The importance of having a strong resume only increases with age, and so being involved in your campus community is as important in college as it was in high school. Find clubs that fit your interest. If you’re considering a career in journalism, join the campus newspaper. If you’re interested in activism, find your campus’s LGBTQ group. The great thing about colleges is that they offer a wealth of offerings to satisfy the most diverse tastes. Even if there isn’t anything that immediately grabs your interest, step outside your comfort zone and try something new. You might surprise yourself.

Get Out of the Country

Almost all colleges and universities offer considerable opportunities to study abroad, and my study abroad experience was the absolute highlight of my four years. Studying abroad gives you a great opportunity to experience a different culture in a non-tourist capacity that is truly unique. Not only did my study abroad experience help me find my current thesis research topic, but it also introduced me to some of my best friends.

Say “Yes” More Than You Say “No”

While this applies to some of my earlier categories, I think this is important to reiterate. I said “no” a lot in college, and there are certainly situations where that’s appropriate. “No, I won’t be a passenger in your car because I don’t feel comfortable riding with a drunk driver.” “No, I won’t let you copy my math homework.” “No, I can’t go to the dance tonight because I have a paper due at midnight.” However, there are lots of experiences that you may be tempted to pass up because you feel too busy or just not motivated enough. The more experiences you can amass, the more satisfying your college experience will be. So when your friend asks you to help decorate the student center for an African drum concert, spare a few hours of your time and do it. If you get an invitation to sit on a hiring committee, give up a few lunches to listen to the talks and give your feedback. Go above and beyond the bare minimum required to gain your diploma.

What advice would you like to have received on your high school graduation?

The Things I Would’ve Liked to Hear on Graduation Day (College Edition)

And the final thing I wish I would’ve heard: CHILL OUT. (Image Credit:http://blog.studentadvisor.com/StudentAdvisor-Blog/?Tag=College%20Graduation)

The Hardest Part is Just Beginning

And you thought the four years you spent in college were hard? While I don’t dispute that college years are a very real part of life, life outside of undergrad has been infinitely more difficult for me to get the hang of. Living with roommates was a difficult transition, but living by myself was an even more difficult transition. Making it to the dining hall in my twenty-minute afternoon break between classes was hard, but making a budget and having to do my own grocery shopping was even harder (and oftentimes a great deal more depressing).

It’s Okay Not to Know What You Want to Do for the Rest of Your Life, But You Have to Do Something

When I started out college, back in 2007, I thought that I was going to graduate as a certified English teacher. That part happened. I also thought that my certification meant that I would become an English teacher. That part may not happen. Things change over the four years you’re in school. Unexpected events throw your sense of purpose and identity. The political science class I took my senior year made me wish that I had taken a broader variety of courses to really find my passion instead of just majoring in what I thought I was good at. My involvement in campus activities sparked my interest in social justice, human rights, and nonprofit work. Unfortunately, this meant that when I walked the stage last spring, I had no idea what I wanted to do next. My response to that lack of certainty was to go to graduate school. In retrospect, I don’t recommend this route. Take a year to work and figure out your passion before committing to more education, more debt, and more essays. Imagine my surprise when a year later, as I’m entering the final phases of my graduate program, I feel the same way I did with my BA. This time, however, I’ve decided that I need to be done with school, and so I’ve found a one-year position with a nonprofit agency. This leads me to my next point, which is

Nothing Has to Last Forever

That’s right. If you don’t know what you want to do, find something to do in the meantime and figure out what it is you really want to be doing while still being a productive member of society. There are plenty of temporary jobs available, and many may even help you find what your ultimate career goal is. If working in retail or the food service industry is less than ideal for you, try looking outside the typical box. What government jobs are locally available? Parks often offer work in the summer and on a part-time schedule through the fall and spring. AmeriCorps or similar programs offer a 1-year minimum commitment. Teach for America offers a two-year job placement. The PeaceCorps sends you abroad for just over 2 years. Any of these decisions will help boost your resume, if you highlight the right skills you gained (i.e. working at Barnes & Noble means that you gained valuable customer service experience), and none have to be permanent. For our generation, finding your career at the age of 22 is becoming less and less probable.

Enjoy the Present

College often feels like a state of flux, or some sort of purgatory between education and work. Working at a temp job in New York City or going to graduate school in Wisconsin may not have you waking up every day feeling as though you’re living the dream, and you may worry about what you’ll do next year or next month or even next week, but try to appreciate the incredible amount of possibilities you have as a young person without a significant amount of responsibilities. You have the luxury of going to NYC for a year to work low-paying temp jobs and live in a shady apartment and go to all the Broadway shows you can afford. You have the luxury of going into more student debt to get your graduate degree in something you feel passionate about. Try not to let the future feel like a crushing weight on your mood, but more like a wide open field in which you can run any direction for miles.

Accountability

“Dear. Dr. Thesis Supervisor,

Hey, it’s me. Um, so I’ve started working on my introduction, and I’m sending you this e-mail because I hope to have a rough (ROUGH) draft done on Friday, and I was hoping to e-mail it to you to get your feedback. Hope your summer is off to a good start!

Yours Truly,

Anxious Grad Student”

That’s a slightly-exaggerated, names-removed-to-protect-the-anxious-and-the-impressively-scholarly, e-mail I sent to my professor a little while ago. Nothing in it is a lie. After all, I have started my thesis introduction. At the moment, it looks more like Frankenstein on the slab than the well-polished introduction it needs to become, but ultimately I guess it’s a start. The problem is, I’m having trouble moving past the first four pages. I’ve done a lot of research over the past few weeks. I’ve read lots of books, started lots of outlines…but now it’s time to get the show on the road. It’s time to start writing.

However, my procrastination has proved to be a worthy foe this time. My procrastination has outwitted me in every way. I make myself leave my house and go to the library to get work done. “No problem,” my procrastination says. “We’ll just angle our computer screen away from the other desperate students in the library and play some Bubble Shooter. Just one more game of Tetris,” my procrastination whines when I seem to be in danger of getting work done. “I have to check my e-mail one more time!” it protests, when I turn off my wireless connection.

My procrastination has not responded to threats, logic, tears, bribery, or anything else I can think of. Hours in the library have been spent doing…nothing. Time spent at my desk at home has been spent doing…nothing. Sometimes, my procrastination even just sits in front of the open word document, “ThesisIntroDraft1,” and doesn’t bat an eye. Doing nothing would be preferable to my procrastination than just getting the work done.

So today, I pulled out the big guns. I e-mailed my thesis supervisor promising him ten pages by Friday. In some ways, this has already proven to be a severe move. I’m getting the feelings of anxiety that I used to suffer to frequently last semester again. However, my procrastination also seems to have taken notice. “A draft?” it screeched, fingers flying frantically over the keyboard as it played yet another round of Tetris. “How do you expect to get a DRAFT done in two days?”

But that’s just it. This is what we needed. Accountability. With long-term projects, accountability can be hard to find. If you don’t have someone looming over your shoulder with deadlines and consequences, procrastination is easy. However, sometimes you have to find ways to make your own accountability. Move up your own deadlines. If simply moving it up on your calendar isn’t enough, TELL the people you’re accountable to that it will be done by the earlier date. Intrinsic accountability is great for those who are really self-motivated, but for the rest of us external pressure is the best thing since sliced bread. So watch out, procrastination, we’ve got a draft due. In two days.

So I guess we have time for one more round of Tetris.

Playing Nice in Academia

In academia, there will always be some good-natured (and sometimes not so good-natured) eye-rolling. At the beginning of September, for the first of a long series of Friday academic lectures, my department had booked a SCHOLAR. Now, this SCHOLAR came from a BIG NAME SCHOOL, and the fact that he was a professor emeritus might give some indication of his age. I deplore -isms of any kind, but this SCHOLAR had been prolific before my parents had been born. He was the epitome of a doddering professor. And yet, my department had raised a considerable amount of money in order to bring him to our campus, and had blown half their copying budget making posters to plaster the school with advertising this SCHOLAR. The talk was advertised as something about performance and learning and…well, it’s hard to exactly remember. Because what this SCHOLAR presented really had nothing to do with what had been advertised. In fact, this scholar had no argument. What he prattled on about for 45 painful minutes was…plot summary of old films.

Yawn.

Here’s hoping Riley doesn’t ever find my thesis…or else she might call for the dissolution of the entire discipline! (Image Credit:http://www.umanitoba.ca/virtuallearningcommons/page/1738)

Sometimes, for whatever reason, academia is boring. Even if it’s in the area of my degree, I find myself back in 11th grade math, staring out the window at the highway that ran past my high school and wondering how much longer the agony would continue. Sometimes, much like my 11th grade math class, academia is boring because it just really doesn’t make sense. Sometimes it’s boring because a paper goes on for more than 30 minutes. Sometimes it’s boring because the topic seems tired and overdone. Sometimes it’s boring because the presenter lacks vocal intonation. Sometimes it’s boring because you can’t understand the person who’s speaking, which is very much a reality in a world that embraces scholars from many different countries and language backgrounds, which is great for diversity and academia in general but does not always lend itself to comprehension. (Full disclosure: I once spent an entire semester not understanding a word my Children’s Literature Professor, who was Scottish, said. My notebook from that course is filled with a lot of question marks.)

Boring, however, only scrapes the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes, academia can get contentious. Scholars disagree, and sometimes (be it through written or verbal communication) they disagree with each other. Strongly. And not always very nicely. Scholars can be bullies with the best of them.

Sometimes, however, academia crosses a line into offensiveness. A recent blog entry, published April 30th on The Chronicle of Higher Education website entitled “The Most Persuasive Case for Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations” by Naomi Schaefer Riley is a great example of when I feel academia crosses the line. Riley disagrees with the entire subject area of black studies, which many traditional, stuffy scholars might place in the same category as cultural studies, women’s studies, or Asian Pacific studies. While Riley is certainly entitled to her opinion, the vitriolic rant she goes on transcends the abstract and goes into the real. In fact, Riley goes so far as to attack current graduate students in black studies. She cites their dissertation titles and a line or two from their abstracts in order to dismiss the category, saying things like “The best that can be said of these topics is that they’re so irrelevant no one will ever look at them.” Ouch.

As a current graduate student, this kind of personalized attack cuts me exceptionally deep. After all, I would defy you to find an academic scholar who hasn’t, at one point or another, looked at hir work and wondered “What is the point of all of this nonsense?” While I’m not going to get into the racism that may (or, some have argued, may not have) permeated Riley’s post, what is sad is that she attacked individual students in a discipline without having all the facts. People who read my thesis title and prospectus might be equally dismissive, which is a sad truth. What Riley might be overlooking that a major part of obtaining a degree is in improving individual skills, such as researching, critical thinking, editing, and other skills. Sure, your thesis or dissertation may not be the next great theory or discovery, but in the process of creating the thesis or dissertation you as a person have grown.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has since fired Riley, which I’m tempted to think was the right move. What do you think?

Long Distance Relationships

Have you ever been in a long distance relationship? I have. In fact, I’ve been in a lot of long distance relationships, including friends, family, and romantic partners. For a lot of college-age students who go away to school, long distance relationships become a fact of life. Whether it’s two hours away or twenty-two hours away, distance can be difficult when it comes to maintaining relationships. Sometimes, it can seem as though all you want to do is talk to the people you’ve left behind, while other times you can barely stand to be on the phone with them for more than a few minutes.

Too bad those old tin can phones don’t work over long distances! (Image Credit: http://www.modpodgerocksblog.com/2011_07_01_archive.html)

The latter can be incredibly problematic, especially considering that all relationships need communication. When distance becomes a factor, it simply means that communication has to become more of a priority. I’ve seen a lot of different styles of maintaining long distance relationships. My partner and I have a sort of unspoken agreement that if we’re out with other people, we don’t talk. One of my friends drops everything when her partner calls, whether she’s out to dinner with friends or in the middle of taking a shower. Other friends set up strict times during the day when they talk to those they’ve left at home.

The biggest problem I’ve run into is maintaining multiple relationships at the same time. It often makes me feel like a juggling student who decides to pick up too many flaming chainsaws too early. After all, staying in touch can be time consuming. Between Skype and phone calls and Facebook and e-mails, you can easily start to feel overwhelmed.

I wish that I had more advice to offer in this blog, but even after five years of (with varying degrees of success) maintaining relationships over long distances, I’m not a pro. I struggle. Ultimately, though, I think the most important part is discussing your feelings. You have to keep the lines of communication open, or your long distance relationships will simply become long distance non-relationships.

Undeclared?

One of the things I would do differently if I could do college over again is wait before deciding definitively on a major and minor. I went into my BA knowing that I wanted to be an English literature major and a secondary education minor, and that left me little room for changing my mind. After all, I had course quotas to fill. I got so wrapped up in getting ahead on the necessary courses that I missed out on taking a lot of other courses that I had initially been interested in, like pottery or political science. There were certainly signs along the way that indicated I might have made a hasty decision. The first was that I didn’t do so well in my English 100 level course. The second was that I didn’t particularly enjoy my English course, although I enjoyed the instructor and still liked reading fiction. The third was that I really enjoyed courses outside of my discipline, like a logic course I took my sophomore year to fulfill a math requirement, the political science course I took just for fun my senior year, and the sociology of education course I had to take as part of my education minor in my last semester before student teaching. If I had taken time to make a decision and really thought about what I was doing and where I wanted to go, I might have realized that while I enjoyed and would always enjoy reading fiction, I did not enjoy analyzing it. I should also have realized that while I seemed to be good at writing papers, I didn’t enjoy writing papers.

Of course, I didn’t connect the dots until after I had already applied to and been accepted to graduate school in, you guessed it, English literature. The feelings of doubt I had managed to put off for four years came back to haunt me over my year-long MA program. As I drifted listlessly through courses on Blake and Stoker, I realized that I was frantic to get out of academia all together.

The point of this cautionary tale? Don’t be blind like I was. College isn’t a race to the finish, and you certainly have time in your first year to explore your options. Maybe you’ll require an extra semester if you decide to major in a certain field, but ultimately I’ve decided that a little extra money is nothing compared to having a degree in a subject area you don’t particularly enjoy. While I’m certainly glad to have my BA (and, in a few months, my MA), I do have some feelings of wistfulness and dare I say regret when I look back at my academic career. And in hindsight, I certainly wouldn’t have dismissed those undeclared majors so hastily. After all, maybe they’re the ones who actually know what’s going on.