Doing What Makes You Happy

Recently in my college career, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized my big, fancy dream of going to law school, wasn't MY dream. It was my mother's dream. I realize, for the past semester and a half, I had been going to college, working toward law school and a law career, for my mother instead of for me. Sure, I absolutely adored the philosophy law program, and I'll definitely take more philosophy courses as electives- but majoring in philosophy just isn't what I want to do. And so, I changed my major- and that's FINE! Ever since I was a little kid and my mother started teaching, I wanted to be a teacher too. And every time I brought it up, she always discouraged me from it due to her own personal biases with the education system. And so, I dropped the thought. Though that desire to become an educator never went away. When I finally did get into to college, I desperately wanted my mother's approval.And so, I went into philosophy as a pre-law track. I told all my friends andfamily about how I wanted to become an attorney, and I convinced myself of that too. And just as quickly, I burnt myself out. I was miserable. And that's when I realized, I wasn't furthering my education for me, but for the approval of my mother. And that's when I looked into changing my major. Now, I'm an English major with a focus in secondary education- meaning I'll study both English language and literature as a subject, but I'll also study how to teach. I couldn't be happier with this decision I've made. Long story short, it's important to pursue things because YOU want to- not because you think it'll make a loved one proud.