advice about major?

[stacky]

So.

I'm doing computer science as my major with Japanese as my minor, and I am having doubts. It may just be my insecurity or my mental health that's causing this, but I am concerned about my choice of major.


Here's the thing, I'm good with coding. Everything is clicking when I have to work on programs, and I can understand the reasons why my professor codes things the way he does. 
But
I sometimes feel as if I am not passionate, and this concerns me since the saying goes: "Find something you're passionate about".  I say this because I get so excited about doing my minor, I love language learning, and whenever we get HW for the week, I usually get it all done in one day, just cause I get that excited about it. And everyday I want to learn more and more of the language. 
But whenever I have to do a coding assignment, it takes me a bit of motivation to start it. Once I start it, I'm usually good and just vibing during the process, but I don't get that same excitement. Maybe it's just cause I have to program somewhat mundane things like, "Make a program that counts even and odd numbers" and "Make a program that capitalizes the first letter in every sentence." I also feel exhausted by the time I finish any coding assignment, so I don't really do any side projects. I'm just concerned that I'm gonna go into a field that, yeah, I might be good at it, but it might not be what I'm truly passionate for. 

And you may be asking, "Why don't you switch your major and minor?". Well... That's the thing, I don't necessarily want to become a translator/interpreter, even though I could definitely do that. And I hate that this is the reason why, but I don't want to go that direction just cause translating/ interpreting doesn't pay much. I grew up poor, and money is a big priority to me just cause I can't stand the feeling of not having financial stability. I don't want to be rich though or live in a big house with a fancy car, no, I hate that lol. I just want financial stability. 

I think interpreters/translators are paid $40k a year, but.. being fluent in Japanese is extremely hard since the language is so formal. Also, in the Japanese language, they are extremely contextual; they will say one word and it's up to you to understand the entire sentence they just said. Like they could be talking about "That boy over there is playing baseball in the field" and they'll just say "Boy". And to be fluent enough in Japanese in able to translate/interpret like business meetings and specialized words, it would take me way more than just 4 years of learning Japanese. That isn't exactly worth $40k a year for like how much I would have to learn. (I do plan to continue to learn the language after college ofc along with many other languages, it is a dream of mine to be a polyglot. So maybe in the future it can be a sideincome, but I wouldn't want it to be a main source of income. )

I'm sorry for the rambling, but I don't know, college has me so confused. 

[Bannanachair]

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.” - Gurney Halleck

Excitement is a fickle mistress. If you're excited to do something one day and not the next, things can be difficult, especially if your ability and motivation to do the thing are dependent upon that excitement. Don't pick a major just because it excites you, but pick a major because you can do the work even when you're not excited. If you swap to Japanese as your major and get burnout and then can't keep studying it, that doesn't solve the problem and might make things much worse. If you can do compsci even when you're not passionate about it, then it's a thing that works for you - you don't need to define your life by your career, after all.

For me, I'm a math major. I'm not a math major because it's what makes me more passionate than anything else, because it's not, though I am passionate about math. I'm a math major because even when I can barely muster the energy to get out of bed, I can muster the energy to do math, which is not a thing true of me for basically any other subject. At its best I like writing much more than I like math, but sometimes I can go for a stretch of months without being able to write (whether it's due to the writing itself or exhaustion from other things I can't tell, but I don't want to risk it).

I'm not telling you what to do one way or another, because, though we spent our childhoods on the same website, I don't know your circumstances well enough to tell you what to do. That said, I hope I was still helpful in some way.

[stacky]

Nov 13, 2020 18:09:21 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.” - Gurney Halleck

Excitement is a fickle mistress. If you're excited to do something one day and not the next, things can be difficult, especially if your ability and motivation to do the thing are dependent upon that excitement. Don't pick a major just because it excites you, but pick a major because you can do the work even when you're not excited. If you swap to Japanese as your major and get burnout and then can't keep studying it, that doesn't solve the problem and might make things much worse. If you can do compsci even when you're not passionate about it, then it's a thing that works for you - you don't need to define your life by your career, after all.

For me, I'm a math major. I'm not a math major because it's what makes me more passionate than anything else, because it's not, though I am passionate about math. I'm a math major because even when I can barely muster the energy to get out of bed, I can muster the energy to do math, which is not a thing true of me for basically any other subject. At its best I like writing much more than I like math, but sometimes I can go for a stretch of months without being able to write (whether it's due to the writing itself or exhaustion from other things I can't tell, but I don't want to risk it).

I'm not telling you what to do one way or another, because, though we spent our childhoods on the same website, I don't know your circumstances well enough to tell you what to do. That said, I hope I was still helpful in some way.

This actually helped alot, I needed this. I changed my majors/pathway a lot in high school cause I didn't know what I wanted to do. I went with CSCI just cause I felt that I could probably do it since I'm good at math and science. That uncertainty still haunts me though, so I needed this advice. 

Thank you

[sk8]

Nov 13, 2020 18:09:21 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.” - Gurney Halleck

Excitement is a fickle mistress. If you're excited to do something one day and not the next, things can be difficult, especially if your ability and motivation to do the thing are dependent upon that excitement. Don't pick a major just because it excites you, but pick a major because you can do the work even when you're not excited. If you swap to Japanese as your major and get burnout and then can't keep studying it, that doesn't solve the problem and might make things much worse. If you can do compsci even when you're not passionate about it, then it's a thing that works for you - you don't need to define your life by your career, after all.

For me, I'm a math major. I'm not a math major because it's what makes me more passionate than anything else, because it's not, though I am passionate about math. I'm a math major because even when I can barely muster the energy to get out of bed, I can muster the energy to do math, which is not a thing true of me for basically any other subject. At its best I like writing much more than I like math, but sometimes I can go for a stretch of months without being able to write (whether it's due to the writing itself or exhaustion from other things I can't tell, but I don't want to risk it).

I'm not telling you what to do one way or another, because, though we spent our childhoods on the same website, I don't know your circumstances well enough to tell you what to do. That said, I hope I was still helpful in some way.

When the only thing I successfully can always force myself to do regardless of mood is music, but there's no money for most.

I guess I can vomit out papers as well, as I've been vomiting out every paper this semester within a couple of hours and my professor seems to like them based on his notes.