Tuesday, September 16, 2014

On Choosing a College Minor

The fall of my freshman year, I wrote something on this blog about searching for my major.

I was like Link.

I was trying doors, searching for the key that would let me out of the dungeon. The battle was long and hard, but I did it. I picked up the treasure and got out of the room. I declared my major. I declared two majors. And a minor. I had escaped the dungeon, and I was proud of it.

Or so I thought.

It is now the fall of my junior year, and I'm still like Link.

I still haven't rescued the princess. I've slain a few monsters and gotten a sword, but there's still plenty of evil to defeat and a world that isn't very saved.

Somewhere in between the exhilaration of getting back out into the sunlight and looking forward at all the paths and doors I knew were ahead, I forgot that the path I was on might change. In fact, it probably would.

And it did. I found myself in another room. A room with lots and lots of doors.

It was smaller than the first room, and I had less time to get through it. I scrambled between doors, taking out monsters and getting a little battered and bruised until I figured it out.

Back in the first room, I'd picked up an extra treasure. I'd carried it around for all this time, thinking I could use it, and just recently I realized that I couldn't. It wasn't really helping me, and I didn't want it. So I set down that treasure called Computer Science so some other hero-to-be can come by later and find it in the tall grass. Maybe that hero will know how to use it with his other tools. Maybe it can become a part of that hero instead.

And now, here I am. Just a student of English, Greek, and life, with a few extra CS skills that I'm more than happy to hang onto and a load that's just a little lighter.

I'm like Link.

Link is on a journey. He's still discovering who he's meant to be.

And for now, that's good enough for him.