Unusual Combinations of Courses

My academic career is rather unusual. Many of my friends are majoring in subjects that lead rather directly into a particular career, such as engineering, or social work. Most of them knew before they came here what they wanted to do with their lives afterwards, and then built their program around that. They have a vocational perspective on being here.

I've often envied them. I can't do what they're doing, though, because I'm not interested in any of these things, and I don't want to be spending my life doing these kinds of things. It's not wise, and maybe not possible, to try to do something that continually bores you. You have to listen to your brain, and play to your strengths.

So what excites me? What does my brain latch on to? Well, it's English literature. I've always devoured books, I'm excited by new literary movements and new techniques. I love literary processes such as textual analysis. No way will I give these things up.

But I am stressed when I think about the future. I've been quite envious of people in engineering, architecture, and the like; people will pay them to do what they love doing -- at least that's what they can justifiably hope and expect to happen. With one major, I could be a year closer to graduation; I'm not stressed about that because a degree in English by itself wouldn't lead me into any money-earning work I'd be interested in. University teaching: not my thing.

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to broaden my program and do a Double Major: English and Biology. It's not a combination that directly leads to a job, but it's one that I can at least hope will be marketable if I do well and if can match myself up with a suitable career track.

I've been lucky, or maybe I chose the right University in the first place. I've found that I can do a wide variety of courses that will count towards my Double Major. I have a lot of bio, a lot of Chem, and of course a lot of English. I'm also taking anthropology, psychology, and quite a bit of sociology.

The combination suits me extremely well. I'm continually seeing insights that come from one subject and pertain to another. I can discuss things from points of view that others can't have, because they're too narrowly specialized. The insights from anthropology, for example, pertain surprisingly often to what I'm reading in literature. Another example: physiology, psychology, and sociology. All have insights they can offer the others. You do have to have the kind of brain that notices these interactions, or be able to train yourself so you can see them. Two or three trees, sometimes of different species, but with branches that are intertwined with each other in lots of places: it's lateral thinking, thinking outside the box and not everyone can do it. This message is not for them. Even some profs can't do it, and don't notice when I do it. Just seeing these things is rewarding on its own, though. But the times when someone you respect is impressed with something unusual that you've seen: they're truly exhilarating.

In the end, I'm banking on some of these abilities and skills being useful to other people -- and that I can get paid for doing them! My track isn't simple like the architects or the social workers. But then I'm not one that ever goes with everyone else in a straight line from one place to the next. I have confidence in myself, though, that I'll look back in ten years or so, and be able to say, "Yes, it hasn't been easy, but I chose my program well and I've done well since."