The Two College Majors

Sophie sat at her desk with two college brochures spread out in front of her. One was for biology, and the other was for graphic design. The deadline to choose a major was Friday, and she still hadn't made up her mind.

She had always liked science. She enjoyed labs, and she was curious about how the human body worked. But she also loved drawing, and she had spent hours designing posters for her school's drama club.

Her friend Dylan came over after school to help her think it through. "What does your gut tell you?" he asked, sitting down across from her.

"That's the problem," Sophie said. "My gut doesn't know either."

"Okay, let's do this differently," Dylan said. "If you study biology, what will your life look like in five years?"

Sophie thought about it. "I'll probably be in a lab somewhere, or maybe studying to become a doctor. It's stable, and it matters."

"And if you study design?"

"I'd be doing something creative every day," she said, smiling for the first time that afternoon. "I've wanted that since I was a kid."

Dylan leaned back. "You've just answered your own question, you know."

"Have I?" Sophie asked.

"You talked about biology like a plan. You talked about design like a dream," he said. "That's not nothing."

Sophie was quiet for a moment. She had assumed the safer choice was automatically the better one. But Dylan's question had made her see it differently. Neither major was a mistake; they simply led to different lives.

She picked up the graphic design brochure and read it one more time, slower than before. The photos of student projects on the cover reminded her of the posters she had made last spring. People had actually stopped to look at those posters.

That night, Sophie opened the online application and typed her name into the major field: Graphic Design. She read it twice, took a breath, and clicked submit before she could change her mind.