// Let's say, hypothetically, I'm switching my major

Wow I didn't expect my first post of 2026 to be a negative one but oh well. I've been enjoying my life the past weeks, but soon I'll be back to college, and thinking about it makes me really nervous.

For starters, my schedule for the next quarter is awful. Hard classes, horrible professors, and big gaps between classes. I've avoided looking at my class schedule and setting up my Google calendar because I was genuinely scared to face the reality, when my fall quarter went so well all thing considered. But these are things that I know I'll manage, one way or another.

There's another thing that's on my mind.

I want to switch major.

This is something that has been on the back of my mind, popping up here and there, constantly for the past couple of months. I know I put it as a joke in the last blog post, but I think, for the first time, I'll properly acknowledge it. I've been phrasing it to myself like "hmmm I wonder if I should switch major", but I can't pretend like there isn't a genuine desire behind the question. There isn't a specific major I'm thinking about, just more so the broad concept of switching from a STEM major to a humanities one. I don't think I'd wanna be an art major, though.

I told myself that I wouldn't let family pressure effect my decision, but let's be real, that's one of the biggest thing holding me back from even seriously thinking about changing my major. Because of the whole engineering-degree-makes-money, good career prospect. And what if I'm wrong? There's always the very real possibility that, once I start my upper-division engineering classes, I'll realize I actually like engineering.

I'm also worried that it would be too late, since I'm almost halfway through my second year of college. I know that sounds funny, for a kid in college to think anything is "too late", but it sure feels that way. It has been nice having an engineering major, if anything it gave me a clear direction to go in. A rigid 4-year class schedule, knowing exactly what classes I need to take, try to join engineering projects, all with the hopes of getting into a research lab, go to career fairs, get internships at a local engineering company... there is a very firm path, one that I know many, many of my fellow peers are following and excelling at.

Then I think about all the classes I've taken. The maths, the physics, they never brought me joy or any amount of satisfaction. Sure, I can learn the material, pass the class just fine or even do good in them! But the only class I can say I've enjoyed, and felt the joy of learning, that I genuinely cared about and felt like it was an irreplaceable experience, are my humanities classes. Now, that's not to say I go into lecture every day all smiling and have an easy time writing essays. In fact, it's the opposite. I struggled at the essays, a lot, but I also put my whole heart into it in a way that I know I never do for any of my math homeworks. I study for a math exam to pass the class. I write an essay also to pass my class. But the difference is that, what I wrote in a math or physics class, I couldn't care less; I throw all of my scratch papers at the end of the year anyway. What I wrote in my humanities class though, I felt like I had something to say and I got to say it. I look back at it fondly.

Here's the deal:

I'm ok at math and physics. They don't come to me intuitively, but with enough practice and a good professor, I can pass the class with a B or A.

I'm a good writer. Let me brag a bit :P I know I'm not bullshitting because if we're measuring purely by grades, I passed all of my humanities/writing classes, where the majority of your grade is dependent on writing assignments/exams, with an A or A+. I struggle a LOT when I write, but more often than not, I really like the end product. Grades isn't the only measurement, I know. So here's further proof: the three big research/writing projects I've done in the past, they've all won an award. My last research paper, the EarthSpark one, got selected as Top 10 out of 700 submitted papers. An actual panel of faculty and writing specialist looked at what I had to say, and agreed that yep, I have some good ideas going on in my brain. For fuck's sake that's gotta mean something right??

And you know what's funny? The only class that I genuinely look forward to next quarter, is the only humanities class I have.

At this point why am I even sticking with an engineering major?

// What major would I switch to?

At this point I gotta start thinking about actual careers because a degree is just a degree, and classes are classes. So I gotta think about the fields that correspond to each degree.

Giving a cursory glance at my uni's major list... nothing particularly stood out. For now all I have to go off of is a vague feeling of "humanities".

In the process of writing this blog I kind of sort of convinced myself to seriously start looking at switching majors. As in I might go to academic advising. Um. Yeah. Idk anymore. I guess the one good thing I got going for me is that most of my GEs are done, so if I do end up switching, I only have to worry about taking major-specific courses. There's also the worry of needing to do a 5th year, but I think that just depends on the specific major. The biggest risk is the fact that I'm switching *out* of the school of engineering—it'll be near-impossible to switch back, so if I do it, it's final.

// Hm.

Typing this out helped, I think. At least I feel a little more sure of what my current options are now. Most importantly, I gotta go do the basic housekeeping stuff to prepare for first week of class. Wish me luck.