Changing my Major

So today I changed my major. That horrible curse of college has effected me too! Don't worry, it won't be changing again, I don't think, though my minor might, possibly, at least. I dunno. It depends. Anyways I went from English Writing and Rhetoric to Religious and Theological Studies.

Of course, the question is why? I just traded an awesome, useful degree for a “useless” one that won't get me a job. I'm obviously an idiot now, right? Well... only sort of.

See, part of the problem is the culture I grew up in. I'm not talking about Bangladesh, I'm talking about my parent's organization. Some of my parent's coworkers moved to India when they were my age, nothing but a high school education and the knowledge that they needed to be in India to better serve God. Now, the thing is, all of these people eventually had kids who have, as of yet, pretty much universally (disregarding a few) all spent a long time waiting till they can get old enough to join the same organization themselves and follow in their parent's footsteps. 3 of my friends now are working for my parent’s organization, just like their parents did. 2 of them appear to be in it for the long term, one is still deciding. Everyone assumed I would do the same.

Now, here is the thing. While my parents have never pressured me, I think the culture of their organization (combined with Bangladesh, possibly) has. I had this very long discussion with my parents last year about how I didn't want to end up being “[My father's] son” I wanted to be me, Isaac, a person unique and different from my parents.

So I ran off to college, avoiding Christian Universities (Catholic doesn't exactly count; plus Austin is notoriously liberal and the school shows that). I majored in English Writing and Rhetoric and took a class I loved. I then realized I could minor in something, so I went ahead and did that, I picked a minor in Religious Studies cuz I figured I might as well do some theology, its fun, after all.

2 Things happened between then and now. First of all, I came to the conclusion that I would be joining my parent's organization, if not for the long term, than at least for the short term. Three years ago I was anointed as a nation builder and I've been trying to work out what that means since. I've also realized that I don't enjoy writing, I enjoy thinking, and writing is a medium for thinking, for me, because I spend so much time on the computer. It seems to me every time I'm talking to my mother I'm talking about Philosophical things, not English Writing. In fact, I'm kinda dissatisfied with my English Writing class this semester. Its... okay. Its hard, and I realize that has kind of soured my taste. But the thing is, this is still a class thats fundamentally interesting to me. I don't think Revising and Editing is going to be like that, etc. I looked through the list of classes an English Writing Major has to take and I felt, more and more, how I just don't like the idea of studying these things.

Sure, the question now is “what are you going to do with that degree?” And that's a question I cannot yet answer. My response is that I'll figure that out later. My second response is that I didn't know what I was going to do with my English Writing Degree anyways. My current plan is something like this: Complete College in 4 years. Between then and now I need to spend a summer Interning at a NGO in India or Bangladesh (I'd intern with my parent's organization if I could, but I think that would be … complicated). Study Abroad in Europe (Germany/UK are #1 choices) and... I dunno. Then go to Europe and Study Theology stuff.