Hello, great young minds!
My name’s Emily, and I’m proud to declare that I have dropped out of university, not once, but twice. I just keep coming back! I’ve tried two different universities, three different faculties, and I’m currently trying out my third major, but my plan is to leave with my degree this time. You know what they say… third times the charm!
I used to talk about dropping out in a joking way to hide any shame associated with admitting that I chose my major ‘wrong.’ But the reality of it is that there is no such thing as wasted education. That’s something that my mom has told me since I was old enough to understand why I went to school every day.
There is no such thing as going to university ‘wrong.’ If you take a class and the professor mumbles the PowerPoint slides for an hour and a half about a topic you couldn’t care less about, you learn how to persevere through something you hate. If you take a class that you thought you would love and you end up realizing that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, you can learn what you don’t like and adjust your career path accordingly.
If I’m honest, the biggest challenge I had to overcome when dropping out of school was trying to be kind to myself about it. I realized that dropping out doesn’t mean you’ve ‘failed,’ it doesn’t mean you aren’t ‘smart,’ it doesn’t mean you aren’t still the great person you are outside of the classroom. All it means is that you’ve grown to realize that you would be happier, more passionate, or better suited towards a different career path. And that is OK. In fact, continually adjusting and adapting to new knowledge and taking the initiative is quite an admirable skill.
So, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make the ‘right’ choice when choosing a program or faculty. Make the best choice you can, and you can always adjust it later!
Emily Meyer
