It is time to talk about my major. Normally I try not to write about things personal to me, as I don't feel the general public is terribly interested in that, but this is important to me so I'm gonna write about it.
To begin. My original plan was to major in music education. (a 5 year degree that contains the most credits at BYU). Several things happened over the course of that first school year to change my mind. Consequently, instead of music education, I am majoring in family sciences.
Family Sciences, you say? Yes. For those of you who don't know, this is the "MRS" degree of BYU. It's generally thought to be one of the easier majors, and therefore made fun/looked down on. I'm going to tell you why I don't agree with this anymore, as I used to be someone who made fun of this major (oh, the irony).
In Family Sciences, you learn about the dynamics of family life, how children develop, the relation between God's plan and the family, and useful things for a parent to know (ie financial planning, sewing, cooking, etc). Perhaps it sounds cushy, but having been introduced to some of these classes I find that they require a lot of work. Which makes sense.
The other week, I told someone (who happens to be a physicist) that I was majoring in family sciences. The look of "why are you taking That major?" crossed his face, and he asked," Why don't you do statistics, or something?" Well, first off, I'm terrible at math. Second off, how will statistics help my family? My children will be much better off if they can eat well and not be destitute because of poor planning; in addition to which they will learn to cook, plan for and take care of themselves. Perhaps statistics would be a good career, but I plan on being a mother. It makes sense to me to gain the skills I need to competently care for and teach a family. That is a job that I would like to do full time, given the opportunity.
In short, I'm majoring in Family Science because I have a testimony of the importance of families. Just because I'm not in engineering or music education or something else like that doesn't mean I'm not smart or not hardworking. I'm both, and I know that.
This mindset took a long time to acquire. I was worried of being laughed at or scorned because of my major choice, or that I really was undermining my potential in choosing this route. This is false. I believe I will meet/develop my potential as a woman and mother, and seeing as that's one of my main goals in life, it seems appropriate, don't you think?
