I, like many of you, came to MtA with only a vague idea of what I wanted my major to be. The transition from high school to university hit me like a bus; the former, an environment where you have to ask to use the washroom, versus the latter, where the choices you make today can affect your entire career. I was woefully unprepared to make choices of that magnitude, so when the time came to choose my courseload for my first year, I just picked the courses I had succeeded at in high school. It was a split-second decision, made on the phone with the first-year advisor.  

And that is how I became a Biology major.  

I did not cope well with the learning curve in my first semester. Many students place enormous pressure on themselves (and I among them) to perform as well as they did in high school. A word of advice: don’t. My friend Will (link Will’s I Wish I Knew post here) wrote a post about being okay with failure. I couldn’t agree more - the keystone to a growth mindset is accepting your shortcomings and learning from them. But I’d like to change the tone a little; what you may see as “failures” can easily become opportunities with the right mentality.  

For instance - my lack of interest in some of my first-year classes, while detrimental to my GPA, led me to spend more time working on the ones I found invigorating. The result? Bad grades in some courses, and great grades in others. Would I consider this a failure? My parents certainly did; but in my eyes, I was just finding out what I loved. So, in my second year, on the course change deadline in September, I finally acted on the thoughts that had been present in the back of my mind all summer, and switched from Biology to Economics. Was it a decision based entirely on a whim? Yup. Did it make me super anxious? Absolutely. Some cognitive dissonance after the fact? You betcha. But I can tell you that today, exactly a year after I made that decision, I have never been happier or more involved in my schoolwork. I have no regrets. 

Thus, my second piece of advice is this:  

What’s life if you don’t take a leap of faith once in a while? Scaring the hell out of yourself can really be the only wake-up call you need.  

First-year is not the be-all, end-all of your university experience. You are at Mount A to find what makes you tick; chances are, you’re not going to get it right on the first try. If you’re having a hard time, don’t beat yourself up.  

You just haven’t found what motivates you yet.  

The best is yet to come. Keep learning.