- Kat
Major Changes
Updated: Jan 29, 2021
This past week has led to me to some MAJOR changes, great life changes, and my change in major.
In attending my university’s 5th annual, largest student-run mental health conference in California this past weekend (thanks to Zoom, you can check it out here!), becoming a new leading officer for my university’s new mental health club (My State of Mind), and pondering over this past year of personal development under the global pandemic and recent transitions of political legislation, I feel like I have become a CHANGED person.
So much to the point of changing my major from nutrition science, now into psychology. I have also recently added a minor in human rights, because of my newfound indignation from social oppression I now fully witness and understand, through education and advocacy.
With January of 2021 wrapping up, I realize that I have grown TENFOLDS as a young woman entering adulthood. Although it is just one month into the new year, I truly have connected back to myself and feel lighter than ever, in ways I never even could have imagined. Through this beautiful process of discovery, I've realized my stronger passions in how humans perceive and shape their own lens of the world around them, as opposed to the rigorous focus of food and its healthful properties that revitalize individuals to fully function, thrive, and live.
First and foremost, there is no health without mental health.
As much as I love nutrition, I had to be honest with myself: for these next 2 years in studying upper division major classes, am I going to find deep fulfillment in the deep dive of food’s chemical properties, or the deep dive of how the mind works with its connection to radiant health?
Attending my university’s mental health conference was my wake-up call that I NEEDED to do the latter.
Even though I initially received backlash of this major from my family not being a feasible or viable option towards financial stability, or that it simply will not “go anywhere,” this was my opportunity to finally follow my inner knowing, intuition, and heart. For once, I am now presented with this chance to fully be authentic with myself; I had to let go of the societal expectations around me that projected ideas of inner doubt and incompetency. Admittedly, I was really nervous in making this decision.
Would it set me back in educational requirements and lose me time and money? Did I waste my efforts in classes I didn’t even need to take? Is what I am doing really making sense?
But after finally sitting with myself and soaking in all my experiences with college so far, switching my major to this new field of work feels like I am guided towards the direction I am now meant to pursue. I finally feel confident in doing hard things, and I am even surpassing my own expectations I previously had about myself.
I am being brave by taking on more leadership roles, and I am now finally marching onto the beat of my own drum.
The best news I have ever received in switching my major was my utmost pleasant surprise of being able to graduate even EARLIER than I had expected: fall 2022 instead of spring 2023. Knowing this really put my current state of being into perspective — I have just spent the past 1.5 years of college dedicated to the grief of a connection I used to have, healing from my own trauma (which I will now eventually be vocal about, little by little, here on this platform), and using my hurt to grow. At this present moment, I now realize have I that similar amount of time left with the rest of college (1.5 years left), meaning I am HALFWAY done with college, simply with this action of switching my major.
What an absolute gift.
In me doing the inner work to evolve, grow, and heal from my deepest struggles and hardships and pain, it feels as if the Universe has given me the gift of obtaining a speedier graduation towards an even more exciting future.
Now, I feel guided to turn my pain into passion, my trauma into transformation, and my struggles into success.
Though this blog still feels like the starting stepping-stone-stages and an extremely new project in progress, it has really helped me in coming to terms with this major decision, as a new pathway for my direction towards the work I want to immerse myself in. Just as I have experienced it myself, I want to help others do this inner work.
The inner work of healing.
To realize one’s worth.
To help others smile from their own grown confidence.
To provide solace, comfort, and kindness for this world that seems to have gravitated away from its humanity these past 4 years, and in retrospect of its entire history.
What does it really mean to love yourself? To believe in yourself? And why should we even care about it? These are the questions that invigorate my inner voice.
Everyone wants to be enough. But I want more than that for everyone.
I want everyone to be their own kind of greatness, to thrive, and to fully live… all starting from the mind.
This whole time in college, I thought it would be from food. But in discovering that my niche is really about mental health, above all, it is clear to me now that this is the root cause why I started this blog. This is what it means to fully live.
Writing helps connect me back to what revitalizes me: healing feels like seeing change as something beautiful, instead of threatening.
So expect some changes in how this digital outlet of my expression will be in terms of layout, theme, and tone, as I am still figuring it all out along the way. (maybe some social justice and culture awareness here and there) I am still unsure how to go about with the title, whether I should change “Plantifully Living” or not, the changes I should make with the website design, or any other adjustments with my Instagram blog. I will never forget about my love for nutrition, but this is how I can reach my potential, and pave the way for my future now.
If you have read up to this point, THANK YOU. I mean it. It is readers like you that me feel like I am heard and understood, and I hope I may do the same for you. These pandemic times are tough. So feel free to reach out on my instagram, about anything and/or everything. Tell me about your struggle. Tell me about your passions. I am here.
Let us be there for each other and with each other. As young college students, we are the future generations for envisioning and creating a world with greater positivity.
Hope you stick around in supporting my growth, so I can support yours, too.
Important Resources:
UC Davis Mental Health Initiative (all students and professional speakers that inspire me can be found from their social media pages!):
Instagram: @ucdmentalhealthintiative
My State of Mind
Branch at UC Davis: https://www.instagram.com/mystateofmindatucd/?hl=en
- Kat