Many people tell us college kids that people switch their majors all the time, and that it's okay.  I never imagined that I would be one of those students that quickly changed their major.  The decision for me was difficult, one that I still occasionally struggle with now.  

My reasons for wanting to be a doctor stemmed initially from my cousin Christian's death.  Christian Arista was like an older brother to me, just like the rest of the Arista family being like my siblings.  So ever since his death I knew that I wanted to do whatever was possible to try and help anyone going through what my family went through.
Besides family matter I have always loved science.  In elementary school I would read books that had anything to do with science.  From weather, to animals, to basic biology, anything that had science involved I would read.
Going to high school and being involved in higher level courses such as honors or AP's, I was constantly surrounded by intelligent people.  Everyone in my Ap Biology class wanted to either be some type of doctor or go into research.  Since I thought that I wanted to be a doctor this helped them take me a little more serious.
In my family everyone knew that I wanted to be a doctor.  When college was right around the corner my family had fun being able to tell their friends that I would be attending college with an intense major.  In reality I had fun telling people that as well.
This year after going through many changes I realized that something I really want to do is travel.  I love the idea of being able to live in different cities and states, maybe even countries, but that thought was not realistic with my education path.  The thought that I would have to stay put for years and miss out on so many experiences began to stress me out.
I started to really think about why I was doing this.  I knew I wanted to help people, but there are so many different ways to do that.  I knew I wanted to be in the medical field, but that does not only mean doctor.  So what was really my reasoning for wanting to go medicine.  The answer was a little sad and disappointing when I figured it out.  Realistically the reason why I wanted to be a doctor was because I just wanted the title.  I liked the idea of being Allysa Garza M.D.  I love the thought that when people would ask me my profession they would automatically assume I was intelligent, which is something that I always strived for.  But that reason was so shallow and fake.  So I made the ultimate decision to switch my major towards nursing.
Nursing does not require as much school, it is in the medical field, I would be helping people, and I would be allowed to move around.
This is not to say that those going towards medical school all want it for shallow reasons, but in the end I realized that my reasons were.
I am eager to see how my life pans out with this career in the back of my mind.  At the present moment the thought of being a nurse practitioner sounds nice.  I would like to work with kids, and being a nurse practitioner would allow me to do that
College has really been a wake up call to me, one that I am grateful for.