I've known for a long time that there are many things that I like knowing or doing that I don't like learning about. Like reading. I really like having read lots of books and discussing them and talking about them, but the actual sitting down and reading it isn't really all that pleasurable to me. Or Art History. I love visiting museums that have art that I understand or at least can pretend to understand. My experience in art history classes, however, has been pretty boring.
It is just occurring to me today though that it can also go the other way. There are many things that I enjoy learning about that I don't enjoy doing. This is what originally got me out of the Physics Major and what has stopped me from being a pure mathematician. I love my classes--they are the highlight of my day--but the idea of doing a ton of research in it doesn't really get me very excited.
I've been thinking about this today because this conundrum creates an interesting decision for me. It sort of feels like I can choose a field of study now that I love in return for a profession that I may enjoy less, or I can study something that I enjoy less for a profession that I may enjoy more. Making this decision more complicated is that it is hard to say which professions I'll enjoy more or less until I am there. I was surprised by how much I loved my Physics classes but by how much I disliked research. I like my research now much more, but I still sometimes wonder if I would enjoy a more applied field even more than this.
Decisions, decisions.
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2 comments:
My thought: finish econ because you like it now and think you'll like it later, try several things post graduation on the professional level and if you decide you want to focus on something else, there's always grad school. But major hopping too much as an undergrad just delays the process, because it puts you further away from working professionally and knowing if you like that. I'm always a big advocate for graduating asap and going back for more degrees, not more majors, if you want more school.
I'm with Chris on this one. This is no time for a mid-college crisis :)
There are plenty of ways to change the direction of your career after you graduate. A degree in econ doesn't lock you into one thing.
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