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comment by xofaith
xofaith  ·  3364 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A guilty request, I'm not even adding tags because I feel it's self-indulgent.

To be honest, getting your degree is a really good idea. It's OKAY to not know what you want to study. I changed my major from Liberal Arts to Art History before finally settling on Geography of all things.

For me Geography was perfect - I took the Human/Cultural Route with it versus the technical mapping. It was an arts degree that brought together anthropology, sociology and a bit of psychology as well as a touch of history all into one place.

So I got to take a lot of cool classes that would do things like talk about Edward Snowden or China's Censorship or Nature and Human Kind and so forth. Stuff that I aas already reading about and engaged in online.

The funny bit?

I got into it by accident. After really disliking my Art History major, because it sucked the fun out of art for me; I didn't want to take extra course load just to graduate.

I found out that Geography fit my credits perfectly and decided instead of taking a particular winter term off, that I would go ahead and take the basic core requirements and then maybe swap my major or just stick out the Art History.

Turns out, I really enjoyed the basic core requirement courses and actually graduated with a degree I appreciated.

One piece of advice my dad gives me all the time that I have trouble to this day following, but still think is excellent advice is that:

    When you're facing a problem that seems difficult or unmanageable and have an insistent need to fix it that very second, don't. Sit back, accept that you have a problem and sit with it. Let some time pass before you do anything or make any major decisions because in 3 days or less you will have more information and things change/look differently.

Also, you've had it rough! Dealing with so much from depression to partying to drugs to your teeth issues is not easy and that needs to be acknowledged. I had it really rough through school too. My brother died Fall of what was supposed to be my final year at school. From there I dealt with a myriad of mental health issues surrounding his death and then I fell really ill with an unusual disorder that causes me to be on a feeding tube to this day.

I ended up being at school 3 extra years making me a 7th year senior. To be honest, it wasn't so bad. I was able to make lasting friendships from the start of my college career to the end of it. That has put me in touch with a few cool people who are alumni now, as well as current students & even a few freshmen even though, I've been an alumni for about 2.5years now.

Everything I went through gave me a good perspective too. Suddenly grades weren't so important, and I took the pressure off myself. If I had to withdraw and get penalized - I just would. If I needed a lighter load one term, I'd do take a lighter load. If I needed a term off - I'd take it. I stopped stressing about grades and although I'm pissed that my GPA is just shy of a solid 3.0 it was very freeing to not over worry about my grades.

I ended up failing a class even! The one on Edward Snowden of all things! Even that in its irritatingly special way was a good lesson in priorities.

I don't tell you all of this to just talk about me, there is a point here. I work best by example - so maybe you can pull something from my personal story that relates or connects to you and helps you get through this time in your life! :-).

Edit/PS: These types of real life issues are my favorite kind of Hubski posts! They're engaging and spark some cool personal discussion in my opinion. Makes everyone so much more human/normal.