The Arts Kid Chose a Science Major?

Full disclosure: I was not a science kid in my youth. I enjoyed learning about the different sciences, but it wasn’t the subject I excelled at back in primary and secondary education. I focused my time on the arts and music. For example, I was in a choir from the time I was in 4th grade up until I graduated from my undergraduate studies. The extracurricular activities and electives that I took were mostly art-based, not science-based. I would take art classes for fun, despite not being that much of an artist, because I enjoyed spending time drawing and working with ceramics. I was in our school’s theater program because I loved acting. I took Advanced Placement French because I genuinely wanted to, not because I had to. I would enjoy English class because I love reading books and writing.

When it came to the core science and math courses, I took what was required of me to get my diploma. Think Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Trigonometry. The only optional math class I took was Pre-Calculus. This was to ensure I would have the foundations I needed to take Calculus in college. For the sciences, I had to take Earth Science and Biology during my first two years of high school. For the second two years, I could pick between Chemistry and Physics, but I had to take at least one. I ended up taking both courses during the last two years of high school partly because I figured it would be useful to have some base knowledge of both when starting out in college. Outside of that, there wasn’t much that was offered that I was interested in. Many of the extracurriculars in the sciences were geared towards engineering, which I didn’t intend to major in nor had interest in pursuing. If I decided that meteorology wasn’t for me, I wouldn’t have done engineering, so I felt no need to take those courses. There also weren’t many clubs based around science in my high school. There were a few, but nothing I was interested in.

Because of this, I think I shocked people when I told them I was going to college for meteorology. I can’t blame them, as I had done very little to show this was a career field I was even interested in, let alone something I would actively pursue. Many people didn’t realize I had this lifelong interest in the weather. When people would say what their college majors were, I was one of two people who said they were going to school for meteorology. In a high school class of 217 kids, that isn’t many, but the fact that I was one of them likely confused people. I don’t know how many people thought I would make it. Yet here I stand, nearly 7 years later, with two degrees in hand in the very subject that I love. I wouldn’t trade that time for the world.