As a freshman in high school, I was asked the same question over and over, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Throughout high school my answers fluctuated from a writer, to an architect, and finally to an engineer. I was not entirely sure what I wanted to be, but one thing was for sure and that was I did not want to work with kids... at all. My mother is a teacher and has always warned me not to be a teacher because it is becoming a less stable job and I agreed with her. My father is an engineer and by my junior year I knew I, too, was destined to be an engineer. I would study civil engineering and spend my days (hopefully) designing bridges. I have and have always had sort of an obsession with buildings and bridges and the work that goes into designing them to be stable.
Little did I know that halfway through my senior year everything would change. In January of my senior year, we were required to take a job shadowing day. I searched everywhere around my small town for an engineering firm I would shadow for the day and was turned down by several places. I was running out of time and needed a place to shadow. At this time, I had currently been working as a tutor at a local learning center that offered tutoring, individual instruction, and therapy to children with special needs, so I signed up to shadow one of the therapists.
It was the day of my job shadow and I was so excited. I would be shadowing an occupational therapist. It was the day when I fell in love with occupational therapy. That being said, I had already been accepted and enrolled in environmental engineering for the upcoming fall semester at Mercer University. I had also received a heft scholarship for engineering and I knew I could not afford to give that up. I stressed myself out for weeks debating whether I should continue to attend college for engineerings or switch to occupational therapy. I could no longer see myself being happy as an engineer but was afraid to tell me parents that I wanted to give up my scholarship to pursue OT. It took me a while and support from many of my friends to make the leap in informing my parents and switching up my degrees, but I finally did it.
Now I am currently pursuing a biology degree on the pre-OT track and I could not be happier. Mercer does not offer graduate school for OT so I will have to go somewhere different in four years, but knowing that I will be doing a job that I love for the rest of my life is enough to keep me going strong. I have completed my first semester as a biology major and I sometimes look back and wonder if I would be as happy as I am if I had chosen not to change my major and I am 100% sure I would not be.
I think it is so silly of me that I almost let me parents dictate my future for me. One of my favorite quotes is by Babe Ruth and it states "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." Needless to say, Babe Ruth meant this about baseball, but I apply this to my life in so many ways. I was afraid that my parents would be disappointed in my decisions to change majors and I was afraid they would not support my decision. However, I overcame this fear and chose to do what truly makes me happy.
I learned from this experience to not have fear to chase your dreams. Whether you desire to change your major, join a new organization, or apply for that extremely selective internship, I hope you go for it fully, without fear. Make this your semester to live without fear!
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