The Mid-Night Crisis
We all have that moment in the middle of the night after a bad dream. That moment where you have a small (or big) crisis when you question whether or not the major you are pursuing is the one for you. Sometimes this crisis comes after you fail a class… for the third time; or when your friend is talking about one of their major-related classes and you realize that sounds like a lot more fun than the math class you’re taking right now.
My crisis was slightly different than that; I came to UNLV as a Chemistry major. Don’t ask what I wanted to do with that degree because I’m still scratching my head about it as well. I had gone a whole year at UNLV with this major and I was excited for the classes that were to come… until it came to Organic Chemistry…
THAT DREADED CLASS!!!! For any pre-med/science majors, you understand my struggle. I took that class (and fantastically failed!) and realized “maybe this isn’t for me”. But what was for me? I have always loved Chemistry in high school, I even took the AP exam for that subject.
Luckily (at least for me), prior to my crisis I was teaching Taekwondo at a local studio and was having a blast. I had numerous parents tell me “you are a fantastic teacher”, “it’s because of you that my child wants to come to classes”, and “I haven’t seen a smile on my child’s face like that in a long time”. Even my instructors were impressed by my natural teaching abilities. This made me feel so good and I was so proud of myself that I decided to become a teacher.
I switched my major from Chemistry to Secondary Education with a focus on Physical Science. I combined the two things that I loved into one; teaching and science. With this degree, I will be able to teacher middle school earth/space science or Chemistry, Physics, or Geosciences at the high school level. Ever since I switched, I have been enjoying school so much more (and even made some teacher friends that I can call on when I am stuck once I have my own classroom!)
The moral of the story children, is that it is OKAY to switch majors! I lucked out and only had to add one extra semester to push my graduation from Fall of 2019 to Spring of 2020. Some people have to add an additional 2 years depending on when you decided to switch majors. But switching majors is not the end of the world. So the next time you wake up in the middle of the night questioning your major, remember that no one will criticize you for changing your mind; this is a safe space.
Jordan Dellinger, Senior
Editor
High School: College of Southern Nevada High School
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Major: Secondary Education- Physical Science