Personal Narrative: Coming Into College

Coming into college I had no idea what I wanted to major in, although that statement is somewhat misleading. I did have some idea, but it just was not completely my own idea. My entire family works (or is in school) in the field of engineering, so naturally growing up in that environment made me want to follow in their footsteps. I encountered a problem when I was not accepted into my first college choice, NC State, which made me scramble to apply to Winthrop. This lead me to start taking the types of classes I would need to transfer into the engineering school at State, classes like chemistry and calculus. My second semester is when I decided to change majors to accounting and call Winthrop my home for the next four years (at least). I finally
High school is supposed to be a place to prepare students for college, and help them plan accordingly. Instead of just going through the motions and thinking I would be an engineer, I could have planned my college major more carefully and went into college with a more thoughtful plan. Like I already admitted, my first semester GPA, was nothing to write home about; and furthermore, it could affect my goals of graduated with highest honors. But college is a considerable step above high school in more ways than one. Higher level math in high school in no way prepares a student to say that they want to be a math major. And the majority of high schools barely offer anything outside of history, math, English, chemistry, and biology. Being led down a narrow path in five subjects for four years cannot be seriously taken as “critical” planning and experience for the real college experience. Sure ideas about majors and future jobs can kickoff, but having a completely set plan before the experience of college introduces new horizons is shortsighted. But countless people would say the same about picking a major because of comfort in grades and happiness. Some of my friends applied as majors they didn’t even want just for the thought that it would help them receive better grades, and others because they knew they were exceptional in that in high school and didn’t want to step out of that comfort zone. Well I would agree that challenging oneself is extremely important in unlocking ones full potential. But just enjoying something and being good at it does not mean one isn’t challenged by it. I find myself challenged by my accounting classes daily, but it’s the love of the work that pushes me to jump at those challenges and take them head on. In chemistry I was challenged, but the drive was not there because the work held no personal excitement for me. It’s true that some