My Breakup with Biology: A letter from an ex-bio major // Student Experience: Gabby
The college process during my last two years of high school wasn’t as horrible as everyone set it out to be. I had already decided what my future career would be like before I even stepped foot on a college campus, I had my mind and heart set out on being a biology major and upon entering St. Bonaventure University I felt super excited, determined, motivated and even ready to get my diploma and my bachelor’s degree in Biology (it also helps to say that I was super close on minoring in economics as well, thank God that did not happen). The fall of 2015 was my freshman year and all was going well until 2 months into the drastic relationship. I tried my best to push it through, I went to tutoring sessions, I studied so hard to the point where I barely had a social life, and I even spent so much time getting all the help I needed in order to just pass one test (which never happened and I had no idea why). It had gotten to the point where I was used to seeing low test grades and not caring about it at all, failing three classes, and dropping out of Biology 101 once I decided to switch my major because I just could not take the failing grades, the studying so hard and just not getting anywhere in life, and being depressed about it all, not to mention it took a great horrible toll on my GPA which is yet still in the recovering period from such an abusive relationship.
I felt as if I did not belong in the “biology major world”, I felt like I was the odd the one out and I did not feel as if biology was made for me, I stayed in this abusive relationship until the fall of 2016.
I had constant fights with my mom about switching my major during the fall of 2015 and 2016 because I kept having to remind her that I’m in college and I have every right to change my mind about what I want to do with my future. I realized that being a biology major was NEVER my dream, it was my mother’s and everyone else’s dream in my family who never got the chance to go to medical school or to just have someone in the family to go to medical school and to become a doctor (that’s West Indian/Caribbean families for you). My mom planted this dream in my head since I was 2 years old, she would tell me that I would say that I wanted to be like my pediatrician Dr. Marie Conde, but at 2 years old which is such a young age, I could have said I wanted to be anything in the world as long as it looked cool to me. I honestly did not see myself as being a doctor and I’m actually proud on saying that and I’m super glad that my mother’s dream of seeing me being in the medical profession has died and I’m honestly never looking back and I’m not going to change my mind about it at all.
Looking back on it all, I’m super glad that I switched my major to English because it was always a skill I never really paid attention to because I was forcing myself to be great at everything else that was not made for me and it was something I never had to force myself to try so hard to the point where I felt as if I was going to fail at the end of the day. The breakup I had with Biology was all for the best and it also helped my mental state as well and there are a lot of negative views about people majoring in English, my mother almost had a heart-attack when she found out I was switching my major to English because she thought that meant I was never going to find a suitable career in which I’m going to make a lot of money, but she also thinks I’m trying to make a living to support the future 2-11 kids I honestly do not see myself on having. As long as I’m able to support myself as well as enjoy not having to stress about where I see myself in the next 5 years then I’m completely happy with whatever career that will not require me to age faster than I need to.
While being an English major I uncovered so many great things about myself that I never even knew I even had. I never knew how much I loved writing and how much I love making blog posts and how much I love reading articles and just reading in general. I also decided to pick up a minor in Law and Society, which helped my mom recover from her semi-mental breakdown because if it’s not medical school then I guess law school sounds more promising in finding a future career to her. As of now, being a third-year English major I have a plan of what I’m going to do after I graduate and that’s just to graduate with honors and get into a great law school which sounds fairly simple but it will take some time since I am a recovering biology major and it will take some time for me to gain that confidence and motivation I once had upon entering college.
