One of my favourite conversations to have with someone I just met is the “What program are you in?” conversation.
The easy answer for me is film studies, but the real answer gets great reactions.
So, during my first two years at Laurier, I was actually in the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics.
Then, in between my second and third year, I made a switch into the Bachelor of Arts program with a major in film studies.
I know, right? You can imagine the kind of replies I get – but they usually sound something like: “Huh, that’s a pretty big change”. They’re right, it is!
Now when people hear I spent my first two years in business school, they usually assume I was pressured into it.
However, that’s not the truth at all. Growing up, I was always good with math, and I also actually ran a small grass cutting business from the ages of 11 to 19.
When I was a kid, I would take around a lawn mower and other equipment and cut lawns in my neighbourhood.
When I was a bit older, I could fit everything in my car and pretty soon was working full time in the summer cutting lawns.
On top of math and my business, my dad worked in business, so I was always getting micro business lessons watching commercials or hearing him talk about his job.
This all meant that when it was time to start thinking about university, I naturally gravitated towards business school.
Ultimately, I applied for three business schools in Ontario: Lazaridis at Laurier, Ivey at Western and Schulich at York.
I’m really sorry to admit it, but initially Western was my first choice.
However, after touring Laurier I fell in love with the school, and it ended up being my first choice on my applications.
I really liked the campus and the structure of the program felt much better to me.
Luckily, I got into all three of my choices!
It was a pretty easy decision and I committed to Lazaridis.
However, there was a bit of a hiccup in my first year.
I graduated high school in the class of 2020, which meant my March break ended up lasting all the way to my first day of university thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This meant my first year was fully online and I spent it at home.
I definitely enjoyed my first year, but I wasn’t enjoying business as much as I thought I would.
It was fun, but it just simply wasn’t for me.
The classes weren’t what I was expecting, and the math was quickly getting too hard for me.
Did you know at a certain point they add Greek letters into math?
Ridiculous.
That year I also took a film studies course and quickly realized my dream was to work in film.
At the end of my first year, I declared a minor in film studies and in my second year I started to take more film courses.
Despite declaring my minor, I was having a hard time taking enough courses because of how the BBA program is structured.
As the year went on, my business grades were slowly dropping while my film studies grades were consistently high.
One day my friend who was a film studies major asked me why I didn’t just switch into film studies, and I couldn’t come up with a good answer.
At the end of my second year, I made the switch and my third year I was a full-time film studies major.
I took all film studies courses that year, and as of writing this, I am on track to graduate after the 2024 winter semester.
While my time at Laurier will leave me with two half degrees, I’m really happy with how it all worked out.
The first two years of the BBA program cover the basics of business, while the last two years of the film studies program cover analysis and theory.
What this all means is that I have a really interesting mixture of knowledge that I firmly believe will suit me well.
A lot of film is business.
You must budget and hire and market and so many other things, which I learned to do in my time at Lazaridis.
If you take anything away from this, let it be that it’s perfectly fine to change your mind about your future.
Passions change all the time, and in my case following my passions led me to some great opportunities.
Even now I can feel my passions continue to change.
I have no idea what I’ll want to do in ten years, and I think that is incredibly exciting.
So, if you also have a “frankenstein degree”, take comfort – you are far from alone, and university is for exploration of interests.