I cannot believe we are already starting out the fourth week of classes. Time goes by so fast; finals will be here before I know it—that’s a scary thought. So much has happened since I last posted… I feel like a whole new person. I was not feeling so happy with some decisions I had made throughout my first year, and decided to dedicate my summer to self-discovery and self care. I haven’t quite figured everything out just yet, but I have definitely made some important realizations in the last few months. The first big change is my major. I was never passionate or excited with the classes I took last year. I had heard people talking about some of the classes they took for their major, and they always seemed to love them and to be eager to learn. I wanted that feeling. Near the end of the semester I made an appointment to speak with Dean Tenser, the First-Year Dean. We talked about my feelings toward my classes and how I had started to acknowledge that I had doubts about my self-proclaimed major, International Relations and Political Science (IRPS). Dean Tenser was so understanding; she listened to me and made suggestions. Although she did not say anything I hadn’t thought about myself, hearing it coming from her made me realize that those thoughts I had been having were valid, and right now is the time to act on them.
Her advice was simple enough: try new things. She even suggested some new majors she thought I might like more. She told me something that had been on my mind for a while. She said to take the classes that interest me, not the classes my chosen major requires. I know this seems obvious, but I can be quite stubborn and my four year plan counted on me taking certain classes. College is as much a time for self-discovery as it is for learning, and I honestly recommend trying not to stress out too much about your major and classes on your first year. Take the classes you want to take, go out of your comfort zone, and use your shadow grading wisely. I recently heard someone say you should not pick a major and take the classes you need for it, but instead should take the classes you want and then pick the major they satisfy. Although not quite as simple as that, I am inclined to agree.
So, you might now be wondering what my new major is. I still haven’t declared (I won’t have to until the end of Sophomore Fall Semester—this December), but the Dean’s recommendations were Women and Gender Studies, Sociology, and Peace and Justice Studies. All of them sound interesting to me, but I think Peace and Justice is the most like what I want. PEAC is a small major at Wellesley, but I really like everything I have learned about it in the last few months. If at all interested, please follow this link to learn about it. I know that I have some time left to decide, and even then nothing would be set on stone, but I am loving my current classes, and that is a great feeling.
My schedule has gone through quite a few changes from when I first registered. In fact, I don’t think I kept a single class I originally signed up for. I am so glad I changed them though, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the semester brings. I am taking four courses: Intro to Peace and Justice, Women and Popular Culture: Latinas as Nannies, Spitfires, ans Sex Pots, and Chinese at Wellesley, and Human Rights at Home and Abroad at MIT. The classes are very reading and discussion based. They require a lot of work outside of class, but all but a few assignments have been interesting and/or eye-opening.
I have a lot more to tell you all, but I will stop before this gets too long. Look forward to my posts every Tuesday! First I will tell you a little bit more about my summer, then I will give you an insider’s view of Sophomore Year at Wellesley College.