My Pointless Major...

Graduating is scary. Completely. I know I'm not graduating until May but at my school they make you fill out graduation papers the semester before you graduate so that all the paperwork is done and it doesn't all have to be last minute. It really is a smart idea but it's got me so freaked out! After May my life will be completely different - No worrying about housing, signing up for classes or homework just working and be an adult. Uh... scary! Just thinking about it makes me shudder! All of my life I've had my path set out for me - you graduate elementary you to to jr. high, finish there and go to high school, after high school go to college, after college... grow up? There is no set thing to do anymore - no specific path to follow. All that lies before you is an open and endless field - it's freaky! I have so many options and no idea which of them to choose. Do I get more schooling? Do I get a job? Where do I live? What do I do? I hate not knowing the future! That and I honestly do not like my major so getting a job in it doesn't sound too appealing... So Why am I majoring in something I don't like? Well... Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time there was this girl. Let's call her... Becky. So when Becky was in high school she absolutely loved English; it was her favorite subject. She loved reading and writing (so much so that she even wrote her own novel (which, if you are ever bored completely out of your mind or feel like losing some extra braincells, you can read said novel at http://www.fictionpress.com/s/1367020/1/Alliquen. I'm warning you - do not expect a whole lot). So upon entering college Becky decided what better subject to major in than English? Well, as her first semester progressed and she talked with others of her major she decided that she only had two options with an English degree; She could either teach or write. Deciding that she had neither the patience, desire, or talent to do either of these options she decided it was a good idea to change her major. But to what?

Becky thought back to all the classes she had taken in high school and tried to pinpoint which one she had liked best (besides English). She remembered taking an Accounting class and somewhat enjoying it. Weighing her options she decided to change her major to Accounting (after all it's a more practical major right?).

Flash forward a few semesters.

Becky decided that her memory had been wrong. She hated Accounting. As hard as she tried nothing seemed to connect or stick in her memory. Slightly frustrated she decided it was once again time to change her major. Looking at her credits, she decided to stay in the Business department so that she could still graduate on time. But what to choose? Business Management. Now that seemed like a brilliant idea. It's broad and will look fairly good on a resume.

Flash forward a semester.

Oh how wrong Becky was... This major, while logical, was definitely not going to work out. Economics became her worst enemy and she refused to stay in a degree that would force her to take more of these horrible classes then she had to! There was a problem though... what to do now? She was within 3 semester of graduating and had no desire to start over in a new department - that would mean more years at her college (which, though she loved the people and the atmosphere, was getting so old that she wanted to shoot herself in the foot). So after consulting with her academic advisor, who looked at her credits and let her know what she could do and still graduate on time, Becky decided to go with Hotel, Resort, and Hospitality Management. This was a major where you sat in classes and learned about the hospitality industry: hotels, restaurants, cruise lines, etc. Upon graduation it was then expected that you would go out and become a manager at one of these places. Well, Becky had always loved to travel so she thought - what the hey? This could be exciting.

Flash forward a semester or so.

Becky once again realized how wrong she was. While it did prove interesting to learn about the hospitality industry, Becky realized that she had little desire to get a job in it. Especially after she experienced what it is like to work at a hotel. Granted she had an off experience as the hotel she worked at was owned by a bunch of racist, sexist, cheap-scape lunatics (no exaggeration - they only liked you if you were an Indian, a male, willing to work for nothing, didn't care if you were spied upon, didn't care that they never paid any of their bills on time and were willing to explain to outraged guests why they had no water, could not re-enter their rooms as their key stopped working and the locks wouldn't work - leaving all of their belongings inside and them outside, and why their rooms were dirty although the system said that they were clean. Yeah... talk about a party.) but she still knew that she could not do this. It was way too late in the game, however, for her to change her major once again. Thus she decided to just stick with it and graduate. After all - there are tons of companies out there that are willing to hire anyone as long as they have a degree. Wait a minute... doesn't that mean that Becky could have stuck with her original major of English and been in the exact same boat as she was now only then she would have a creditable sounding major and in something she truly loved. Why yes it does. Ah the irony.... Pretty much the moral of the story is if you are majoring in something you love - stick with it!

Anyways... so now I'm dealing with a major where I have to sit in classes and pretend to be interested in it and in using it in my future. Great. Ok, so it's not completely horrible - a lot of the information actually is pretty interesting (especially in my cooking classes as if I were to get a job in Hospitality it would be on the restaurant side of things) it's just difficult to be majoring in something that you don't really love. I honestly thought this major was going to be a lot of travel information - learning about destinations and the like - but more than anything it is about how to run hotels. Yeah... don't want to do that! I guess it really would be kind of silly to teach us about different destinations and such as that would be more along the line of being a travel agent and that industry is pretty much non existent (seriously - would you rather call a travel agent or go to travelocity.com?). I dunno... it just adds to the complications of the future lol.

In other news I got the chance to go to Las Vegas yesterday and tour a few hotels - that was fairly exciting. I went down with other people of my major and we were given a behind the scenes tour of two properties. That is something I actually do enjoy about my major - we get the chance to go places and see things that normal guests don't. It was really interesting to see the differences between the two places and to see what really goes on behind the scenes and how things operate. This trip taught me something very valuable - I never want to work in Vegas. I already knew how crazy, dirty, and fast paced Vegas was and this trip only served in confirming it. The people there are seriously insane! That and while Vegas is a fun place to visit I'd never want to live there (sorry to those of you who do). All I can say is that it was nice at the end of the day to be able to leave the city and get away from it all - I know Cedar is small and somewhat podunk-ish but I would rather live here the rest of my life then there - and that's saying something!