Dear Past Caitlin,
I know you're worried about changing your major, but you make it to graduation, so don't worry about that. The only thing you should be worrying about at the end of it all is how you're going to pay off all of your college debt. You should really think about applying for more scholarships.
I think the biggest thing you need to remember through off of this, and really, through all of life, is that your path will never look like someone else's. You have picked a degree in which all of the students will travel with you. You will see a lot of the same faces from class to class and from year to year. Make friends with those people. At the end of it all, they will save your life. They will support you and complain with you and study with you. You will meet people that you wish you could be friend with for years to come.
The biggest problem that will come with being the same classes with a lot of the same students is that you will start to compare yourself to them. Don't do that. Everyone is unique, and everyone deals with the same situation and the same environment in different ways. Don't beat yourself up about not doing as well as someone else, or not getting a concept as quickly as someone else. Learn from them.
Always ask questions. Always speak your mind. Don't worry if it seems like others are annoyed that you're always talking in class. This is your education, and you owe it to yourself to make the most of it.
Make friends with your professors. Some will be easier than others, but it will be important in the end. It's the most validating feeling to have a professor come up to you and tell you that you're a "bad ass", or have another professor tell you how trilled they are that you're going into education.
You will feel like you are on the right path. There will be so many things that will reassure you that you have made the right choice to become an English Education major. You will rejoice when a concept clicks and you will grin when a teachers tell you that you came up with something that they had never though of before. The learning will come naturally, and it will be obvious that this is what you were supposed to be doing the whole time.
Remember that the working world is different than the world of academia. You will go out to teach, and you may stumble, but always pick yourself up with a smile. Care about those students, they need it. And you will grow to love each other.
At the end of it, you will feel like you have lost your way a little. But that beautiful and fruitful path is still right there behind you. You're headed in the right direction, your path just doesn't look like everyone else's.
Sincerely,
Caitlin Doolittle
P.S. To future Caitlin: Do your best to keep in touch with everyone you meet along the way.
