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How to Find Joy in Your Choice of Major

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Finding Joy in Your Choice of Major: The Dalai Lama, Douglas Abrams and Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote The Book of Joy.
The Dalai Lama, Douglas Abrams and Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote “The Book of Joy,” this year’s choice for the Campus Community Book Project.

How to Find Joy in Your Choice of Major

Does your major bring you joy? How do you even define joy?

Ambitious questions, sure, but a five-person panel of staff, faculty and students in the Memorial Union tried to answer them last week at 鈥淒iscovering Joy in Your Choice of Major.鈥 The discussion, facilitated by and , was part of the , a series of campus events around 锘縝y the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams.

, a lecturer in the philosophy department, offered the Buddhist perspective on joy. Conventional joy is caused by pleasure, success, satisfaction and wealth, he said. Genuine joy is different.

鈥淕enuine joy is interesting because from a Buddhist point of view it鈥檚 going to be the elimination or reduction of suffering,鈥 Harris said. 鈥淎nd that means particularly the elimination of anguish, sorrow, fear of death, and strangely enough, freedom from conventional joy. So not being bound up in conventional notions of success.鈥

How to Find Joy in Your Choice of Major - Campus Community Book Project The Book of Joy

Defining joy for yourself

The panel shared their own winding paths from deciding on a major in college to evolving their ideas of success. Several advisors and professors stressed this point: It鈥檚 important to define your own vision of a good life. Harris decided to study philosophy 鈥渢o think critically and independently about what made a life worth living.鈥 , an advisor in the , started out pre-med because of a desire to help people, and discovered a better outlet for that same drive as a psychology major.

Others found joy in surprising places.

鈥淢y undergrad was in business administration with an emphasis in finance. So I was not finding the meaning of life 鈥 at all,鈥 joked , chief administrative officer of the Green Cluster in the College of Letters and Science. 鈥淚 was choosing commercial banking or investment banking. I鈥檓 not going to say I chose it as a joyful major 鈥 most business majors don鈥檛. But I found a lot of joy in it.鈥

How to Find Joy in Your Choice of Major - Campus Community Book Project panelists discuss The Book of Joy.
At 鈥淒iscovering Joy in Your Choice of Major,鈥 panelists discussed their winding paths to their own definition of success. From left: Erum Syed, Chris Neufeld-Erdman, Sofia Meola and Leslie Peek. (Rebecca Huval/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

Choosing a joyful major

Students in the audience revealed their internal struggles to choose a major in line with their passions or societal expectations.

鈥淚 think a lot of times, especially in educational settings, there鈥檚 a lot of outside pressure to choose a major or career path based on what you鈥檙e told will get you to this external type of joy,鈥 said freshman Leah Kalish.

She said The Book of Joy and the panel helped her to understand that joy comes from within. 鈥淚鈥檓 still deciding my major, but knowing that no matter what I choose it鈥檒l end up okay and right because my perspective on it is right and I鈥檒l choose what鈥檚 best at this moment in time.鈥 (Read more of her reflections: 鈥A Freshman Finds Joy in an Undeclared Major.鈥)

Some students were torn by familial pressure.

鈥淢y dad is Iranian American and my mom is American, so I came from a culture that was like, 鈥楢re you going to be a doctor? Are you going to be a lawyer? Everything else doesn鈥檛 matter,鈥欌 said one student who started as a managerial economics major. 鈥淚f I really want to do something and it鈥檚 not what my culture or parents want, I will make it happen.鈥

Ultimately, she chose to double major in psychology and communications. 鈥淎nd I kind of want to go into the fashion industry 鈥 I don鈥檛 look like it right now,鈥 she said to laughs, pointing to her 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis sweatshirt. 鈥淚鈥檓 an athlete, so this is my disguise for now.鈥

Creating the space to decide

But busy academic schedules don鈥檛 often leave much mental space for existential contemplation.

鈥淪pace is really important, spaces like this,鈥 said a junior who鈥檇 just transferred to 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis. 鈥淭his is my first time in the quarter system and the whole idea of time is just 鈥 I鈥檓 telling you it gnaws at us students. But you need the space to say, 鈥榊ou know what, maybe I don鈥檛 want to do this anymore?鈥欌

The small space of the discussion could have made a permanent impact on another student鈥檚 career path. She said it encouraged her to consider cinema and digital media as majors. 

鈥淚鈥檝e loved film since I was in middle school, but you know, I have a Mexican mom and she鈥檚 like, 鈥楩ilm?鈥欌 she said, and the crowd laughed. 鈥淭his meeting, I鈥檓 grateful to have come here and I almost didn鈥檛 come 鈥 but just having more guidance on how to pick my major and how to find joy. Because joy definitely wasn鈥檛 what I was thinking about before. But now joy is the idea. It鈥檚 the goal. But now I have class.鈥

And with that, she left the room.


Rebecca Huval is digital managing editor of the Majors Blog in Strategic Communications. She double majored in poetry and arts-and-culture reporting. Despite what people might say about poetry (or arts reporting for that matter!), both of those majors have come in handy in her career as a journalist, a UX writer and a content marketer. 

 

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