Why did you choose your major?

I was watching The View the other day and they were discussing college and how many people aren't going to be teachers and social workers any more because the pay isn't very well. Sherri Shepherd, the new co-host stated, "Many of the lawyers at the law firm I used to work at told me that they didn't have guts to major in what they truly wanted to. They became lawyers for the money!" I was at first very surprised at this statement. I thought most of the time that everyone in college majored in what they wanted to. Then I began to think about myself. Is there more to the reason of why I choose to be an accounting major?

Well when I was a freshman in college I was undecided. I wasn't too sure on what I wanted to do. I had in mind a few things that I was interested in, but wasn't dead set on anything. During my first semester I was really close on choosing a couple of majors. I was almost a theater and journalism major. Yep deep down inside I wanted to be an actor. I had always dreamed of being on stage, but I didn't have the courage to take that risk. So I thought, maybe I can find something else. That's when I thought about journalism. Well I came to find out that media journalist don't make much money starting out. I knew when I graduated from college that I wanted to have a decent job and didn't want to have to worry about paying my bills. I wasn't going to college to come out in debt and broke. I was going to get a good job. That's when I stumbled across accounting.

I took a couple of classes and enjoyed it a great deal. I was making some easy A's and I thought I could do this. Upon further inspection I discovered that accountants made a decent salary starting out. BINGO! I hit the jackpot. I could major in accounting and then bam I could graduate and find a job and not be broke. Now don't be fooled. I am a Baller on a Budget. I am nowhere near rich, but I am content. I am paid a nice salary, but there is definitely something I have to admit. I probably wouldn't have ended up an accountant if one of the other two majors I had in mind had immediate monetary satisfaction. I was willing to take that risk. This made me think that I had to make a decison like many college students face. Many of us are going to college to have a better living. I come from a single parent family and I saw how my mom struggled and I didn't want to go through that. I wanted a better lifestyle for myself. There was no way that I was going to school just to end up in that same lifestyle.

Why are many of us afraid to follow our hearts and due and major in what we really want to? Has the american dream been replaced by greed? Are we willing to sacrifice are happiness just to make a little more money? These are many questions that I have asked myself. I don't really know what the answer is to them.

One thing I want to make clear is that I am not saying that I am not happy where I am. Things have worked well for me in my career. Becoming an accountant has been a challenge, but I am enjoying that challenge. Should I have tried something else? Probably, but who is to say that I still can't try other things. I could definitely see myself doing something else. My second career could actually be in journalism or theater.