I know it's long, but please read. I really desperately need some help on this. Even if you just skim it, I'd be super grateful.

So when I left high school I was absolutely sure of myself. I was going to get a degree in English and I was going to proudly carry the flag of unappreciated worth and constant misunderstandings over that worth and make the best with my talents and goals because I just didn't have any other passions.

Then I took a few Sociology classes out of curiosity, liked them, and added a Soc double major last spring. Not sure what I want to do with it, but I do enjoy what I'm learning from it so I'm sure I'll figure out something.

However...now I'm really discovering a passion for fitness and nutrition. I mean, it was kind of always there, I just never thought I would be allowed to be into that sort of thing (being the "obese monster" that I was). So when I started to get myself healthy I realized that I really like learning about health and wellness and I love getting mobile, and I can't get enough of reading the health blogs of trainers/nutritionists and scientific reports (after years of hating science, I've finally found a part of it that I care about)and watching the vlogs some of them make and I can't wait to get my hands on books (as soon as I have money), and add this to my predisposition to wanting to help people and I'm now looking into anything I can do with my life that will incorporate these aspects.

However, I'm a Senior now. I can't really afford to shift things around and add a few more years to get a quadruple major or whatever (physical and nutrition - I want to work with both), and if I dropped my English major I'd feel like I wasted the last three years (and upwards of $100,000 in college expenses). I don't want to drop either of my majors that I currently have. But I want to learn more and become certified to do something with my new passions.

So...does anyone have any advice/been through a similar experience?

I think pretty much everybody questions what they are doing and changes their mind

I started going to school for pharmacy, switched to biology (1.5 years), dropped out for a semester, went to another school and graduated with a degree in respiratory therapy

Im not sure what jobs you can get with a degree in english (teacher?) but maybe you could teach english at HS and do a health/nutrition class? A lot of my teachers i had in HS taught their main subject, but one class period was something else (french then sports medicine for example) then you could get the best of both worlds

Flails and screams "Anything but teaching." I went for English for more of the writer/editor/advertisement/etc aspect, or even as a way to get into law, though that was a short-lived idea because law school terrifies me. Basically everything that isn't teaching. Not just because I don't like teaching in a classroom setting, but on a much more personal level I couldn't get into the American primary school system because so much of what they do in average schools just makes me so angry that I could never deal with it and would probably be fired/black listed because I would be eternally speaking out against them (I had a friend that wanted to be a teacher...while she was doing her student teaching she ran into at least one thing every day she wanted to speak up about to the board but was terrified to because if one school black lists you then you might never be able to hold down a job in that state again).

That is a beautiful idea though, if I liked the idea of teaching in primary schools. <3

You could still do private schools?

Oh man. I feel ya. I've changed my major...4 times? I'm almost done with my Art Ed degree now but you are so right about public schools. Everyone in my program knows I already plan on avoiding them like the plague. But. When I was having this crisis myself the thing that helped me decide was thinking aboit what I wanted out of my degree. Studio art, I figured I could teach myself what I wanted to know. Same with English--plus I realized I was much happier if I could direct my own learning in that area, so that left graphic design and art ed. But in graphic design portfolios get jobs, not degrees, so college would just be an expensive networking seminar for me. Art ed, however, gives certification I can't get elsewhere. And I wanted to learn how to teach, not because I plan on public school but actually so I can find a way to get more art in the homeschool networks somehow and so I know some basics about how people learn.

So..long story short is I would look at what you can get out of college that you can't get on your own anyway.

- oh wow, four times? Did you ever have to deal with explaining to people what was going on? (That's another fear of mine - over half of the loans are on my mother's shoulders and she's already mad that I don't feel confident in my English degree, but I only have like two or three classes left before it's complete so I'm just going to go ahead and finish it).

I love that advice too btw. I wish younger me had heard it, and had heard it from someone important enough to make it a consideration (younger me was very bull-headed I'm afraid).

Yes and no. My parents are the sort that were always worried about me getting a job, so in the end they were kind of relieved about me getting a teaching license. The school is another story though, since I'm running on 7 years now and they want the space for someone else. But in the end everyone has been understanding : )

Wow, seven years. o.o Well, I can't wow it too much. I'm currently going for five years, and with this new idea I'm looking around to see what kind of certificates and degrees I can add it could be longer. I've also been looking around for maybe getting an additional Bachelor's degree after getting my initial one. Or an Associates for health and nutrition, or if I have any other options I can work with. I'm also working on brainstorming my own ideas if there's anything I can do without getting the degrees at all, but the problem with that is that a lot of people won't take you seriously, especially in fields like health and science, unless you have a pretty piece of paper saying "I graduated from college ergo I'm an expert." It's depressing.

Yeah, proving yourself without a degree in some fields is pretty difficult, and science would for sure be one of them : / I hear a lot of med schools don't mind so much what your undergrad was, if you feel like taking nutrition/dietetics that way. But really I think it boils down to what you want to do for a living which way you go from here. Writing nutrition books or keeping a blog may or may not need the degree, for example. But working with atheletes/people who need to get their eating habits in line in a clinic seems like a job you'd need to go to school for.

But yeah, I decided that I'd rather make sure I was getting the degree I wanted rather than rush through, but I wasn't as close to graduating as you are when I made my last switch ^^;

-high five for english majorness- I get a lot of crap from people for that choice too.

I think that college is kind of silly, looking back on it. We have to pick an area of study before we ever really get to be out in the world and then we get stuck, even if our interests and passions change. Personally, if I was in your shoes, I would graduate with the majors you've got, maybe find some work writing or whatnot, and then look into maybe a personal trainer certificate program? Or something like that. Studying what you love on your own time is definitely something you should continue to do. And if you ever get the chance to go back to college for health & nutrition (and have the patience to do school again) it's always an option.

I have quite a few friends that did an english major to go into teaching. Most of them found jobs, but some of them have been having a real hard time. You could try using your english degree and your love for nutrition to get you a job in teaching health classes? Not really sure if it works like that.

It's perfectly natural to be unsure of what you want to do. I'm a grad student in industrial engineering and I'm not happy with it. I feel like I made a huge mistake and should have went into mechanical engineering. If I could do college all over again from the start, I even would have become a physicist instead, lol. The only good thing I can say is an engineering degree is an engineering degree none the less so I'm not stuck in any one field.

i would do the degree in fitness and nutrition because then the degree actually means something to others (harsh~). you can learn english and sociology by yourself, if it interests you; it fascinates most people (folks like learning about themselves, you know). a lot of jobs with nutrition prefer you have a degree focused in that area versus the other way around, also. and since you are not going to teach, any socio/english jobs should still take you with a f&n degree.

that actually does kinda suck as i think the industrial engineer majors are the least "respected" of the bunch (i think next is civil, lol).. anyway, you could also see how close the curriculum is for different engineering degrees? maybe it wouldn't be that difficult to switch, if you needed to. plus some jobs will take certain degrees more than others so.. maybe also think ahead to where you plan to network. AND OOPS i just realized you want to switch to a physicist soOo that is all probably null. i apologize. maybe see what courses switch over with those two? haha.

We are just more on the business side instead of the technical side of engineering. I have been getting my feet wet in other fields (mechanical engineering and material science). I'm pretty much set as an industrial, I did my undergrad in that as well but I'm not worried about it. I really want to work with renewable energy and that's what I've been doing research in the last two summers and it is my masters thesis. If I can get a job in renewable energy as a project manager it will be perfect because it fits my qualifications and it is what I want to do.

nice to see you aren't one of the many that think they can just hop to a job immediately simply because they have a college degree in some field. haha. good luck in the job stuff~!

Haha I feel a lot of engineers feel like that. Grad school is no walk in the park though, nor is it an out for waiting for the job market to get better. You have to really enjoy what you do and be motivated enough to go to grad school. Thank you! I can only hope that it works out =)

I had this long post typed up to respond to everyone but then my browser closed and it deleted. ;-; I'll try to remember/summarize. (Also, I don't know where else to put this, but can we not talk about teaching anymore? I'm not interested in teaching in primary schools. I might consider teaching at the college level, but that requires a Masters/Doctorate - more and more the Doctorate these days. I'm currently trying to figure out what to do about my Bachelors, the Masters has to be on a back burner right now. And lets just not talk about Doctorates yet ;-;)

- What I meant by "not get a degree" was basically maybe I could find a way to financially support myself while being an activist/speaker for better health. There's a lot of things out there that need addressed on a political level (that it's not illegal to dump mercury - they have to pay a fine, but it's cheaper to pay the fine then go somewhere else - or illegal to put flouride in our water supply - flouride causes weak bones - and so on) but I don't feel I'd be taken seriously even there even with all the scientific back-up I can show as proof.

High fives back. Some cultures expect their preteens to choose what field of study to follow, so we're actually kind of lucky in a way that we aren't expected to figure ourselves out until we're adults. The problem is how hard it is to go back when you figure yourself out after feeling like you've figured yourself out once already (as in my case - I knew I adored English, I didn't know what sociology was, and I felt I wasn't allowed, as an unfit/unhealthy person, to enjoy fitness and nutrition for a very long time and each subsequent discovery made me realize something else I wanted to have as part of my future that I really wish I would have known/accepted two years ago when it would have been easier to deal with this).

This might be a bit of a pushy/personal question, but how do you deal with the emotions of feeling like a different degree would be better suited for you?

I am more and more feeling that I could learn what I want from English by myself. Most of my reasoning for taking the major in the first place was (besides "this is the only thing I enjoy/am good at") for the environment and the dialogue of English classes, but more and more I'm realizing that my expectations aren't going to be met. Unfortunately, I've run into a lot of people who will admit that they're only English majors because it was "an easy major" and they felt like they couldn't just get a general degree. Then I realize that that's sort of what I did with the "this is the only thing I'm good at" idea - that I was taking the easy way out because it was something I was deeply familiar with. It's...leaving me highly questioning my degree altogether. BUT I'm not quitting on it. I mean, I only have a few classes left and then it's done. It'd be silly to wash all of that down the drain now. As for Sociology, I actually am learning, and being challenged, and enjoying what I'm doing and the people around me. I love going after this degree.

As for the idea that those jobs would still take me with a different degree, not so. Having that degree would give me an edge and credibility for all those jobs, and many Sociology degrees won't accept random people off the street to do that work, much like many other jobs (I will agree that English is more open because if you can prove yourself through your work then you can get hired, and you don't necessarily need a degree to prove yourself - that goes with all the arts). Whatever I decide will have a big impact on where I can apply for jobs and I just don't know what I want to do with myself. I don't have a solid goal - merely several things that I love the idea of (editing, being a social worker, conducting sociological studies aka being a professor so I could have funding to study more, being a health and fitness trainer, helping people get their nutrition right, rallying people to demand that they have the chance to be healthy by not having mercury and flouride put in the things they need to be consuming).

Ooooh, okay! That makes sense :) On a tangent, the fluoride debate is one I can't wrap my head around since both sides are pretty vehement that they're right : / Do you have any links I should read?

I would try to take as many science/health classes as you can...maybe even over the summer (as a community college or something)...if you are interested in pursuing a Masters/Ph.D or something else, many don't require that exact major in order yo pursue it...for example, I was a Psych/Anthro major in college and am about to start my Ed.S in school psych...I kinda fit the mold, but many programs did not require a psych/education degree, only that you had taken a certain amount of classes in the subject...so if you really want to keep pursuing fitness, just try to get 6ish classes under your belt and look for programs that might not require a B.S....

have you tried maybe writing about fitness? :) you could create a blog about fitness and health you could get an internship at a health/fitness/nutritional magazine

not sure what else to advise as i'm not there yet, but i wish you the best of luck!!

I have a degree in English and the great thing about it is that it's so versatile! You can work this degree into so many careers, it's ridiculous (and amazing).

To be honest, if I were you, I would not try to add in another major (or switch majors). If you have a real passion for fitness and health, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get your foot in the door in the "real world" instead of spending more money on school. Lots of local gyms and fitness centers have needs for fitness instructors. If there's a particular activity that you're especially interested in, check with the gyms and fitness centers around you to see what requirements they have for you to sign up as an instructor. Most training courses/certifications would cost WAY less than staying in school longer and once you knocked that out of the way, you could start making some money off the side teaching fitness classes. If that went really well and you felt that a degree in the field was still something that you wanted to pursue (and knew that it would be beneficial to you), you could always go back to school. With all of the networking opportunities, I'm sure that lots of doors would open for you just by becoming more involved in a fitness center.

Another thing you could look into is becoming a life coach. It seems like this is a growing occupation. Lots of women (men too) want to become more fit/healthy, but just don't know how. I also agree with about starting a blog. It would be another wonderful way to get your name out there. If you ended up teaching fitness classes, you could tell people in your class(es) about your blog so that they could stay motivated with healthy tips (exercises, recipes, etc.) when they're home. Quite a few fitness instructors/trainers around here do that and it looks like their blogs get a ton of hits.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do :)