Choosing a major is a hard thing to do...

Choosing a major before school started was hard enough, but now that I’m already halfway through the year, I feel like the major that I was so completely sure with before is no longer the dream I was once had, and I just don’t understand what exactly happened.

The single most asked question I get is what my major is - the one that now scares me whenever I meet somebody new. I don’t know exactly at what point I started having doubts about what I wanted to be when I "grew up."

In high school, I bragged about my major. Whenever my friends asked me what I was going to study, I would always give them the same cocky attitude: I want to be a journalist, I want to work for Rolling Stone, and I want to move to New York. Now that I’m in college, I no longer have the same dream. In fact, I think I have actually become the dreaded "U" word: undecided.

I had always heard of my older college friends say that they switched majors a few times before they finally stuck to only one. But, I actually never believed them. I thought they were all exaggerating and that I would surely prove them all wrong by sticking to one major. But now, I’m actually dabbling between three other things that I want to be and they’re very different from each other.

Why is that, though? Why is it that so many freshmen like me are struggling to find their dream career in college when there are so many options? Maybe that’s the problem: we don’t exactly know how many options we have.

I remember that even at orientation, the leaders separated us according to majors and colleges. But what about the "undecided" majors? Were they separated with a bunch of "undecided" people and just got a simple tour of campus? What does the school really do when it comes to guiding us freshman who are completely lost into what we really want to be?

The Career Development Center helps students with their career paths and choices for those that haven't found "the right track." They do so by giving out self-assessment tests and information about different kind of careers and majors that help students decide what they really want to study.

But I guess now that I’m in college, I understand what my friends meant when they said that I was probably going to change my major about a couple of times before making up my mind. I guess it’s because as a freshman, we’re all trying to find what we’re really good at, and sometimes the major that we may have chosen may not have been the best one for us. This would probably explain the indecisiveness and the changing around of majors the first couple of years in college.

I still think that the promoting of other majors and careers should still be more advertised around campus. How about having a table on the Breezeway dedicated to a certain major on different days of the week with a person to talk more about it? Or how about workshops for freshman to help us decide what major is best for us and which ones we could actually succeed in, because I definitely need some guidance in this whole deal.

I just wish the process of choosing a major would be a lot easier. For some reason, it is more difficult than I thought. I am still a communications major, but there are just so many other things that I want to explore and study that I feel like I’m caught up in the middle of my own decisions.

I like music, psychology and writing — but that doesn’t mean I’m going to major in each of those.

For now, I will be switching my major to Psychology just because I think it’s the only other thing I like the most — I just hope I’m making the right decision for my future. But hey, it sounds good for the time being.

Religion, Religion, Religion!

Everyone's favorite brother came by this week - Brother Micah, that is.

I had never even heard of Micah Armstrong before, but he was definitely a character. I hadn’t seen somebody so passionate about spreading the word of God before like that, and though it might have been an entertainment for most of us, it was also annoying how people like him constantly try to convert you into something that you’re not interested in.

Back in high school, there were a lot of religious clubs that were promoted by students throughout the school year. The problem was that a lot of the clubs took the promoting a little too seriously and actually tried to convert people into their religions and not respect everybody else’s beliefs.

When I got to college, I thought that whole deal would be over... until I saw Brother Micah "preaching" to students about how we’re not good Christians because we wear jeans that are "too tight" and "engage in premarital sex." Who is he to say such a thing? But more importantly, it is none of his business whether we’re good Christians or not, or whether we follow the Ten Commandments or not. Who is he to decide for us?

That’s the problem with people like him. They go around to college campuses hoping to get all us little freshman into changing our religions just because they’re telling us to do so. What’s up with that?

As a student and as a human being, I’m the one who’s going to decide what kind of religion I want to be apart of. What if I wanted to be an atheist? What if I didn’t believe in all of this "religion" stuff? Why do people like Brother Micah follow you around, trying to make up your mind for you? What ever happened to respecting our decisions?

I also dislike the fact that people like Brother Micah especially try attract attention to a younger crowd as opposed of older people who are NOT in college. For some reason, people like him think that because we are young and "naive" we would actually fall for the things they say.

Brother Micah was definitely a big hit in the entertainment department. I actually enjoyed watching his ridiculous act this past week. However, I also found him very annoying and also somewhat disrespectful to some of the students. Who cares if we’re sinners or not? My definition of "sin" and his definition of "sin" are completely different. Who cares if we wear certain clothes or if we hold hands and make out? That’s our business and neither him nor anybody else has anything to do with it.

Just let us be and stop trying to convert people. We'll do it if we want to.

Homecoming Week is Near!

In high school, I never went to any dances or proms until my senior year. I never participated in much and I tried to stay away from Homecoming football games and packed stores at the mall trying to look for a dress.

This year, I've surprisingly been consumed by the excitement of my first Homecoming week in college. And let me tell you, it is a lot different from what freshman are used to.

First of all, I didn’t even know there was a Homecoming in college. I always thought that it was primarily a "high school thing." It completely caught me off guard when I started seeing posters around school telling us to vote for our Homecoming prince and princess. Even when I saw the posters around campus, I still wasn’t quite sure of what kind of Homecoming in college was all about.

It turns out that Homecoming in college is a BIG deal. Not only is the week full of fun events for everybody to enjoy, but people seem to actually participate in them and genuinely enjoy the spirit of Homecoming. This wasn’t the case back in my high school days.

Way back when, Student Government practically begged students to go to the pep rallies. We lacked serious school spirit and, on top of that, my high school football team took losing to a whole new level. Besides, the fact that we got ridiculed by other schools for having a condom as our mascot didn't really help. (Yes, The Trojans.)

In college, Homecoming week is actually fun. One of the big activities during Homecoming week is the comedy show, which will be held at the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium in the Student Union. To me, the comedy show sounds like a great idea to have a couple of laughs with real comedians for once.

There will also be a parade and a bonfire. A parade? Seriously? I don’t think anyone in high school even thought of that... let alone a bonfire.

Of course, how can we forget the football game — the single most important part of Homecoming week?

This year, our OWLS will be fighting Louisiana-Monroe at Lockhart Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 27. The football game is THE BEST way to get involved in school. You get a little bit of school spirit, have fun watching some football with friends, and of course, you get to lose your voice while cheering on our Owls. I definitely recommend going to it.

I’m kind of disappointed that we’re not having a dance this year at FAU. But I think all the activities coming up during Homecoming week make up for it.

Homecoming week will be great to mingle with fellow students and go out there and have some fun and forget about homework and papers for a couple of days. Check out all the activities planned during the week of Oct. 21-28 by clicking here.

GO OWLS!

Collegitis

During my senior year of High School, I got what is normally called “Senioritis” — the typical procrastination of a high school student toward the end of senior year. But don't think it escaped me so quickly. Now I'm in college and I seem to be suffering from Collegitis, its evil, older sibling!

When the summer of my senior year finally came, I was thrilled to not have to worry about Senioritis any longer. I could procrastinate all I wanted during the summer because I had nothing to do. I didn’t have any homework to turn in or any exams to study for. All I had to worry about was whether the pool was warm enough.

Right before classes began, I had this sudden motivation to study. I was eager to learn and I couldn’t stop looking at all the cool, new and shiny looking books I had gotten for all of my college classes. I felt so grown up.

Six weeks later, I can’t even stand going to class. Not only are they not what I expected, but it is just so incredibly difficult to even make myself go to them... let alone do any of the homework.

The first week of school, I kept checking Blackboard — the Web site where most of my teachers keep up with assignments — to see if there was any homework I could get done right away. I was on time to all of my classes and paying attention to what the professors were saying.

Now, I forget to check Blackboard and I don’t always get to class early (especially Astronomy — a class which highly recommend NOT to take). As much as I try to pay attention, all I end up doing is either socializing with the person sitting next to me or wondering what I’m going to do during the weekend.

Not only that, but sitting at home and trying to study is almost impossible for me these days. All I do is surf around on Facebook to see if I have any new comments or friends requests, check MySpace (another one of the deadly sins of a freshman) and download music. It seems I do everything BUT homework.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my procrastination is killing me. Not only is it hurting my grades and my studies, but I’m wasting money and time. We all pay for the classes that we take and if I keep this up, then what am I doing in college?

I think most freshmen feel like this and have the same problem. It may be because we tend to confuse college with high school — but with more freedom and no detentions. I'm used to the FCAT education that I was given in high school and not exactly used to “real” studies that will actually be useful in life rather than to pass a required test.

College is not high school. Teachers are not going to guide us through every single step of our college careers. But I’m used to that, which is why I keep putting things off to the last minute — because I’m expecting my teachers to tell me what I need to do to pass. Their job is to teach us, not to spoon feed us everything.

I have noticed that it is also difficult to even like my classes because they do remind me a lot of my high school days. The core curriculum is the worst. The classes are basically the same as in high school; the only difference is that teachers teach faster and there's more homework.

Frankly, I’m sick of seeing and learning the same material that I’ve been learning for the last four years, and I cannot wait until my classes get a little bit more in depth toward my degree. I want to learn something else other than algebra and English. Why not add some more interesting classes to the core curriculum? How about adding some classes that weren’t part of the AP curriculum in high school?

Procrastination is one of the worst qualities to have. I have definitely gotten in a lot of trouble because of it. It is not a good thing to do, and it is always better to get things done ahead of time. If you’re struggling like I am, here are a couple of tips from suite101.com — a Web site that touches subjects from college to the newest Britney rumor going around — on how to get rid of this horrible “disease.”

1. Balance the time that you spend with your friends “hanging out” and the time you spend hitting the books. Education should always come first.

2. Hanging out with your buddies is cool, but give your books some love. Save time aside each day, with few distractions, to get school work done and catch up on studies. It will not only save your GPA but also your sanity!

3. Pulling all-nighters seems like a great idea, until you end up pulling three in a row and end up falling asleep during your chemistry lab. Balance your time between studying and sleeping. You always have to get your beauty sleep.

4. If you’re struggling with the distractions at home, there is a 24-hour study lounge on campus, located adjacent to the library. You should definitely check it out if you keep checking Facebook like me and not actually studying.

I hope you found these tips helpful. Next time, I’ll be the one at the library studying rather than on Facebook adding people.