Two years and ten majors later.....

As I flipped through the pages of my senior yearbook, I found nestled between all of the pictures and signatures, the distant and nostalgic memories of high school. I stumbled upon the last thing my late English teacher wrote and said to me, “True dreams and passions never die, they only evolve.” At the time I did not really understand what she meant, but looking back after two years of college and switching between ten majors, I started to appreciate her last words of advice to me.

For the record, I can absolutely commiserate with all of you who are still searching for and discovering what you want to do with your life. I spent my first two years at college doing the exact same thing. I hope you find some form of solace in my story, in the sense that; your search to give meaning to your life is worth the effort.

On a sweltering summer day in late September, I arrived on campus as an eager freshman ready to explore dorm life and prepare for a career in bioresearch. Throughout high school everyone encouraged me to get a PhD in biology because I had a strong interest in it and had done some prior bioresearch. Life as a biology PhD candidate was the next logical step for me.

However, over the course of freshman year, I guess all the late night talks with my dorm mates about health reform and the consequences of environmental policy breathed life into my dormant passions for politics and economic policy. Soon, I was more interested in the social science/humanities classes my friends were taking than in my own chemistry/science courses. I began to explore classes various disciplines, yet at the same time, I still clung onto my core science classes for the next two years.

To be honest, I was afraid. I was afraid to leave the comforts and safety of the hardcore bioresearch life I had planned out for myself during high school. To diverge from “the plan” was a leap of faith into the abyss without a safety line, and with only the hope that I would find my real passion before my time at college was over. So, for two years, along with my core science courses, I took random classes in foreign language, philosophy, religion, and child development/psychology. During this time, I changed majors every 2 months and contemplated about 10 different majors: biology, chemistry, bioengineering, Spanish, psychology, English, religious studies, medieval philosophy, economics, and public policy. Clearly, I was lost and panicking because I was finishing sophomore year, but I was yet to find that quintessential class that sparked my true passion.

I would love to say that I serendipitously found my passion and figured out what I wanted to do with my life from a windfall encounter with a quirky professor, but that would be nothing more than a fairytale lie. In reality, with a few months before the end of sophomore year, my best friend at college give me a simple advice, “What is the first thing you read when you open a newspaper or a news website?” Aside from the comics section, I found myself drawn to articles about healthcare reform and US economic policy. In the past few weeks of summer, I have taken this simple advice to heart and spent countless summer hours pondering my interests and dislikes. Amidst all of the academic chaos of the last two years, a lucid trend emerged between my college classes and my interests; my favorite classes were ones that had a mix of biology, policy, and economics.

After two years of wondering, I finally started to understand my teacher’s comment. I have come a long way from my initial dreams of hardcore bioresearch to a more interdisciplinary field of public health: healthcare economics and policy. The maturation and metamorphosis of my dreams/goals in life would have probably happened faster if I had leaped directly into the abyss, but regardless, I am still glad that I did deviate from the path I had set for myself. Now, I am excited about a possible future in the health policy side of public health. This realization has given me something to be excited about when I go to class and helped unveil my career path.

For those still searching for their passions in life, I am in no position to tell you whether or not you should abandon your life plans in order to make a leap of faith or take a more cautious approach towards exploration. My only prospective is: finding out what you want from life takes time and a little soul-searching. Some will have serendipitous moments that aid the process, others might not be so lucky and require a little more patience; regardless, the path of discovery often starts with a simple, yet elegant, question about childhood interests or favorite sections in a newspaper. In the end, it all comes down to two simple ideas: “Do not be afraid to explore” and “What interests you in your mundane life?”. As you continue on this journey, do not be afraid if something new interests you; explore it. Just remember: true dreams never die, they only evolve.