¶ … Change I listened intently to the older man, carefully considering the meaning of his words, their denotations, their connotations. He talked at length about his career as a science teacher at a distant middle school, the sorts of movies he would show his class and the interesting things students had told him over the years. But mostly I listened to him as he discussed his collegiate years as a psychology major, and how, despite his interest in the subject, he was relatively clueless at graduation as to what his career path would be.

This informal conversation over dinner with my older brother's ex-roommate between the summer of my sophomore and junior year would come to significantly impact my academic career. Like him, I had entered college as a psychology major, and had delighted in the intricacies regarding the mind and its proclivities for determining human behavior. And, like him, I had also speculated about the practical application of this science, and what sort of career path it offered. Now, over my mother's meatloaf in the dying glows of the afternoon sun, I knew where it led -- to teaching, either in middle school or at some other educational institution just like it -- and I wanted no parts of it.

Listening to my brother's ex-roommate would be the final point of consideration for me before switching my major from...

I was initially torn between the two when it came time to select a major during my first couple years of college, and I had hesitantly selected psychology because of all the fascinating aspects of the mind and its ramifications within contemporary life. But as the semesters went by, I finally found myself becoming gradually disillusioned by the focus of the learning of this major. Certainly, the concepts were interesting and they helped me to understand certain historical events in my own life. But I was never sure about the role that this major could play in the future of my life, and how it could help me to secure the type of career that would help me fulfill my desire of helping. Most of the learning was theoretical, while the world in which we live is largely practical.
After switching majors to communications study at the outset of my junior year, all of concerns about a career path and the pragmatic application of this major were soon mollified. I was pleased to learn that the concentration on communication of this major was first internalized at the verbal level, and that students were strenuously required to write and express themselves with a degree of cogency that could impact any number of career options. Additionally, this major afforded students plenty of opportunities to read a wide variety of materials…