I’ve been wondering a lot these days if I made a huge mistake in picking my major. I made the switch from Korean to computer science on mostly pragmatic reasons— there aren’t that many job openings in Korean (other than teachers or translators), while the sky’s the limit with a computer science degree. Besides, my level of profiency would be the same if I got the Korean certificate instead of the BA, since the BA has a lot of syntax and structure classes, which are, quite frankly, very un-fun.

And though I am better than most of my peers at computer science, it’s not something I’m passionately interested in. Toby is passionate about programming— it’s something he sits up late at night and researches. I don’t. Because of the enormous amount of responsibility he has, he doesn’t have as much time or energy to devote to programming as he would like, and he has gotten out of practice. He takes it very hard, especially considering how good he was when he was in school. I know, however, that if he had more time, all to himself, to practice and study, he would surpass what he was back then. I know he wants to. I guess for now it’s just a waiting game.

Toby needs to pursue what interests him, and so do I. I’ve made it this far, but it’s still not as interesting to me as I had hoped it would become. I keep wondering where I would be if I had stayed in Korean, especially since the job I’m going for now doesn’t require a computer science degree at all.

Perhaps this is just the last-year jitters. I’ve heard of others who made it almost all the way to the end of their degree before getting second thoughts and changing their major. This, of course, keeps them in school for much longer than they would normally be. Some people go through this process repeatedly. However, it does seem to be a common problem, and maybe it has less to do with the worries about the major itself than with worries about life beyond school.

I can’t help but wonder if I did make a mistake. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m probably just worried, and that this is almost over. It’s ALMOST OVER! Why worry needlessly when the end is so near in sight? I took all the Korean language courses I could, and I have no regrets about not taking those ridiculous syntax courses. I have nothing to regret. Almost over… and then “real life” can set in.