Major Decisions...Literally.

It's interesting to think how much can change within a year and a half. Last year, as I entered college, I was convinced that psychology was the major for me. Halfway through the first semester, I decided that it was actually too science-y and I changed it to a double major in English Literature and Creative Writing.

When I planned my classes for my year abroad, I decided to tack on a German minor since I could complete it in one year by taking two upper-division German classes per semester (which was made possible by my fabulous German teachers in high school-- thanks Frau Mueller and Frau Kaulard!).

Now, I've done it again.

See, it's that time of year again-- registration. With all this important life-planning going on around me, I figured I might as well look into my major requirements again to plan my next semester/next two years of my life. For some reason, I decided to look at the requirements for a German major as well... just for curiousity's sake. Well, it turns out that I only need 12 more units (aka 3 more classes) tacked on to my almost-completed minor (just a few more weeks now!) to make it a major. I did some calculations, figured out what I still need to do for two established major, and discovered that by some miracle I have enough room to fit a German major. Not dropping my other two. Simply adding a third. And rather comfortably, at that.

I definitely didn't see this coming when I stepped onto Pepperdine's campus in August 2010. Really, I didn't even see it coming when I came back to Heidelberg after winter break in January 2012.

Like I said, it's crazy how things change.

This whole year abroad has been ridiculous in the best of ways, and I can tell you for sure that I never would have considered that third major had I never come to Heidelberg. I probably would have patted myself on the back for sticking with a foreign language for four years in high school, labeled it all as a great experience and eventually see my German wither from disuse.

Now, I'm seeing so many possibilities opened up before me. I'm thinking maybe of translating German literature into English, because that requires both German knowledge and some creativity. Of course, that won't be my only job. I'll do that on the side while I work in a publishing house. Oh yeah, and write novels. I'm not sure how I'll have time for all this, but then again, I never would have imagined having time for 3 majors in 4 years, either. I thought two majors and a minor were going to be a tight squeeze and that maybe I was being too ambitious... guess not! God's taken care of all the details so far, so I'll trust that whatever career is in the future for me, be it 1 or 3 or 5, will fit in my life in just the way he intends.

For now, I'll just go on planning and studying (lots of that!) one semester at a time.

And on a slightly unrelated yet still somewhat connected note, I can't believe that my time abroad is now 3/4 of the way finished! I'm flying home April 10... and not sure how I feel about that. Not that there's anything wrong with home, it's just that this is such a unique time in my life (living in a foreign country with 43 peers? what?!) that I don't want it to be over too soon. So now that I realize how limited my time in Heidelberg is, I'm started to linger more on my walks to and from class, walk down streets I always thought I'd explore sometime later, browse in stores on the Hauptstrasse I ignored before, stare at the castle some more, and realize that while life in Germany may now have a "routine," it is completely out of the ordinary and something I should never take for granted-- especially now that my time here has a rapidly approaching end.

It's good to know that at least now I won't completely be leaving Germany behind when I go back to the States. 

Yay German!

It's also good to know I may run into more excuses to wear my Dirndl again.