I am no longer a Journalism major.

A couple weeks ago I was looking over the classes that I would be taking for journalism, and I realized that the only classes that interested me were Photojournalism and Advanced Photojournalism. Ethics and Law? Boooooring! I mean, I’ve only heard good things about the J-school here at UofA, and being a journalist really does interest me, but I believe that the classes you take in college should be interesting as well. I realized that the only thing keeping me in the journalism department was the photography classes.

Next I had to answer some questions:

1. What would I major in that would give me a good job with security as well as something that interested me?
2. How would I be able to take photography classes?
3. What do I want to be when I grow up?

Despite the fact that all the people I know tell me I’m a scientist at heart, I don’t want to deal with a science major. I don’t want to take chemistry classes, I don’t like physics, I’m horrible at math. That left some type of liberal arts degree.

Communications?
- Ehh….. no thanks

Psychology?
- I think someone told me that was the most popular major at UofA. On top of wanting to stand out from the crowd, I don’t know if I want to be a doctor in anything, and anything short of that wouldn’t give me the career that I want.

Art?
- The poor starving artist isn’t an over-used stereotype for nothing. Also, I suck at drawing.

Art History?
- I don’t want to work in a museum until I’m at least 75.

History?
- I hate memorizing. What would I do with that degree anyways? Be a high school history teacher? No thanks.

English?
- That might work out. I just never thought that I’d major in English before. Never once did I think of that.

I looked within the English department for different options. The department offers B.A.s in English, English Education, and Creative Writing. So I changed my major to Creative Writing. More specifically, creative non-fiction. The difference between and English major and a Creative Writing major is that with Creative Writing there are a few less literature classes and a few more “producing an original work” classes. Go see for yourself.

My new advisor told me that a lot of journalism students switch over to creative writing. I went non-fiction (instead of fiction or poetry) because I would still like to work in the media field, kind of. I’d really like to be a book editor or a columnist, or maybe even one of those people who help to compile literary journals.

I was still left with the question of the photography classes. The art department offers a lot of photography classes, but they’re stingy with who they allow in. I met with some people from the art department and asked them, “How can I take photography classes and make that into a minor?” They told me about the Studio Art minor. Basically, you take any 6 art classes that you want and call it a minor. The minor fills up really quickly because it’s “easy” but since I have a purpose and theme, they let me in.

I went home and made a 4-year plan. That’s a misleading name, because for me it turned into a 3-year plan. Taking only 15 credits per semester, and none in the summer, I’ll be able to graduate in 3 years. I will be 20.

The other change in my life? I was promoted to Photo Chief at the magazine that I work at.