When Life Plans Change

I've kind of always prided myself on the fact that I've known for years what I want to do with my life. But I forgot that what I want isn't always what God wants, or it isn't always the most thought-out plan, or external circumstances could change.

I chose Asbury because it felt right. And it still does. I debated majoring in something other than creative writing, something that would give me a firmer base in the world. But I know creative writing is my passion. Through writer's block and busy schedules, it's what I've constantly returned to. So my major is firmly creative writing (unless God does something radical). But let's talk about my minor.

When I first started considering Asbury, and then on through the application process, and into registration and what-not, I decided my minor should be journalism & digital storytelling. At the time, it seemed to have a lot of courses that would be relevant to my desire to work in the publishing industry. Recently, though, as I was considering my classes for spring semester (long story why I was doing that so early this year), I realized the minor requirements seemed different. They seemed more journalism-focused and photo and video journalism were required. I don't want to be a journalist at all. So I started questioning whether or not I wanted that to be my minor.

I briefly considered a minor in business until I saw accounting was a required course. I thought about political science. Then I saw the history minor. It literally only requires six 3-credit courses in the 200-level or above. And I found six that sound absolutely amazing to this history geek. (In case you're wondering, the classes are: Survey of Non-Western Cultures, U.S. in the 1960s, History of American Foreign Relations, History of the American South to 1865, Origins of France, and History of Modern Germany.)

I felt like I was going through a midlife crisis that night, as crazy as that sounds. I found a lot of support with my blogger friends, though, and my mom was fairly understanding. She was understandably concerned that I was dropping a minor that would help me in my chosen profession for one that likely wouldn't help much. But as I've reasoned, one of the classes I take could spark an idea for the next bestselling YA historical fiction novel. The world always needs more YA historical fiction. I worried about the practical side of things, too. But a really good, wonderful blogger friend told me that your minor won't make or break you.

I'm still praying and deciding if this is the direction God wants me to go. I'm still a first semester freshman, so this change won't ruin my life. Also, all the courses for history that I'd want to take are 300-level, so I shouldn't take them until at least my sophomore year. Also, my mom is encouraging me to take basic principles of marketing and one of the courses from my previous choice of minor, both of which we think would be beneficial to working in the publishing industry. So we'll just have to wait and see. At least my choice of major is pretty firm. I think changing that would make me go crazy.