Jazmyn Brown is a junior English major The Current’s copy editor. She switched majors after one semester as a biology major. She plans to go to grad school for journalism, philosophy, environmental science or all three, pursue a career in conservation and maybe write some novels.
I’ve always had an affinity for science and math, so coming to NSU my freshman year and declaring myself a biology major came as no surprise to anyone who knew me. But those who really know me also know that my first love is the English language.
We’ve all had it drilled into us at some point that we have to choose a career that’s lucrative , to make sure that we’re able to support ourselves financially, even if it means abandoning our true passion. But what I found out is that choosing the path to riches ends up costing more than choosing the path of passion.
All throughout middle and high school, I wrote poetry. I won awards for my essays and papers and received commendation for my writing. Math and science came naturally to me, but because I had to work to perfect my writing, the final drafts of my papers were always sweeter to me than finding the limit of one over infinity or knowing the entire periodic table.
I took so many science-based Advanced Placement courses at my high school that I was ready to take a class called medical terminology during my first semester at NSU. A lot like anatomy and physiology, “med term” required memorization of medical terms, body parts and procedures, but it lacked the rigor of an actual anatomy-plus-lab course.
Although “med term” and the chemistry course I took came easy to me, they were a special brand of torture. I didn’t like that my life was headed to the realm of mostly gruesome medical conditions and procedures. Looking back now, they were, quite frankly, a waste of time, although I can define so many medical terms now that I often surprise myself. Why did I switch if these courses weren’t difficult for me? Simple. My loathing of the subjects, in conjunction with my job at The Current, fully revealed my zeal for grammar and English.
The one other thing these science courses taught me, beside their respective content, is to respect my own limits. I became a biology major in part because that’s what my parents wanted; I had set a goal to become a pharmacist to listen to their advice–and one day make a boatload of money. But I needed to consider what I really wanted, and it wasn’t late-night biology classes, labs, lab fees, exorbitantly priced textbooks, daily all-nighters, supplemental materials, MCATs, PCATs and another 16 years in grad school.
What I wanted was freedom from all that, and that’s what I thought being an English major would give me. At the beginning of my second semester, I switched from biology to English and haven’t regretted it.
Being able to express myself through poetry and prose in my lit classes and addressing social issues like police brutality, body shaming, hunting and women’s rights in The Current are things I love to do. Many will toil over a lengthy paper, but I find it a challenge to convey my ideas in an articulate manner, manipulating the English language to reflect my personal values and beliefs.
But I’m not going to forget my roots. Although I began to hate the science classes I was in, I never hated the subject itself. Right-brained versus left-brained tests have made us eager to proudly designate ourselves as one or the other. But why not both? With my foundation in science and passion for writing, I can combine the two and pursue a career born of artistic expression and scientific facts. Synecdoche, when a part of something represents its whole, and rhetoric, a mode of effective speaking, have found counterparts in bradypnea, slow breathing, and dysuria, incontinence. It’s all just words, and I love every single one of them.
It’s never too late to switch lanes or even take multiple. It just takes a moment of realization that one path isn’t taking you to the place you want to go. Just like a captain corrects his ship’s course to make it home, switching majors can take you to that place of comfort where everything just feels right.
