Originally Posted by psusue
When I started at Penn State I really didn't know what I wanted to major in. Everyone in high school was like "well what are you good at?" and the only thing I could think of was French. So I went in as a French major. However my senior year I kind of fell in love with science and was thinking of double majoring in microbiology and French, to eventually do medical research or be a doctor in Africa. Enter intro chem, which I was not a fan of. I had to work really hard at it and it just did not come naturally to me, so I decided to stick with French, since I was naturally very good with languages.
I loved my 200 level grammar, writing, and speaking courses. I originally had planned to graduate early since it wouldn't have been difficult to do so. I also thought maybe I'd double major in German since I'd taken a year of it in high school, but wasn't sure. At about sophomore year I realized that French was not a marketable degree. I tried to think of what else I could do but came up with little. But then it came to me-- a lot of people in my family are teachers, so maybe I'd teach.
I was taking education classes for about a year and liked them, but I only really enjoyed teaching preschool and elementary aged children. Unfortunately, there is not a big market for that as most world language programs only start in middle or high school. That, in combination with a GPA drop from a family tragedy had me scratching my head again about what major I would stay in.
Spring semester junior year I decided just to stick it out with my French major (I had never technically changed it to French education). However my French was rusty because I hadn't been consistently taking classes or immersing myself in the language and I could not afford to go abroad. I started avoiding taking French classes (smart, right?) by taking TESOL, applied linguistics, and linguistics classes. I loved those, but again for personal and family reasons failed at least one of them in each area which prevented me from technically minoring in them. Womp.
At the beginning of my (first) senior year, I hated French. I could not do it anymore. I hadn't gone abroad and so my French was abysmal in comparison to everyone else's (my conversational French isn't bad, but my academic French wasn't great) and I was just over it. I knew I had to take 4 more advanced French literature classes to graduate and I could.not.do.it. So I decided to switch to the major that I could graduate from the fastest- Communication, Arts, and Sciences, or the liberal arts version of Communications.
I've been a CAS major for about a year and after trying a few different courses within the major I realize that I really enjoy rhetoric classes. I am also working on doing an internship this spring (and hopefully summer as well) to count for one or two of my classes and give me some more useful skills and contacts. I've already had one internship and I've also worked as an RA, which could definitely help me if I go into event planning or student affairs. Right now I'm looking into working for a nonprofit, in the social services, in student affairs, higher education, admissions, advising, or in ministry/as a missionary. I realize that getting my heart set on a specific career path at this point is not super practical and that I need to be open minded to get a job. I also do not care one bit about how much I get paid as long as I can eat sometimes and have some sort of roof over my head.
I guess the turning point for me came when I realized I do not have high material needs, I love to help people, I love working with people, and ideally I'd like to travel. My plans this August after I graduate is to just apply to a whole host of internships and full time positions and see where it leads me.
I'm not too worried about it; in fact, I'm pretty excited.
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