Category Archives: Permaculture

For the past three years, I have been an Environmental Studies major with minors in Public Administration and Geography. I have always been extremely passionate about the environment and since I was little I was always interested in the earth systems and wildlife. However, over the course of my studies and college experience I have come to discover that I am no longer passionate about my major anymore. Most of the people in my classes are peudo-intellectual hippies with absolutely no direction who live on permaculture communes defacating in buckets and playing badly out of tune guitars. Many of my friends have graduated or are about to graduate, and are having trouble finding jobs, even those who have majored in something practical like Business Management and Education. The job prospects for my field are very slim and don’t pay very well, especially considering I am an environmental “studies” major instead of a “science” major, I’m at a disadvantage. I’m paying for the majority of my college education, I’d like to get something out of it.

Also my coursework includes alot of Math and Science classes as part of the major core cirriculum. My Biology classes have been enjoyable and I’ve received A’s in every one of them but I had to retake College Algebra twice and am doing poorly in Trigonometry as well as Introduction to GIS. My GPA is a 3.1 and probably going to fall, which I can’t afford.

I’ve spoken to my parents about this, and they’re great but they don’t seem to understand the situation. My grandparents paid for my Dad’s education on the condition that he do something “practical” (he chose Healthcare Administration). Same thing with my Mom. They’ve both pushed heavily me to major in something I’m “passionate” about, which used to be Environmental Studies, but I’ve tried telling them that I’m no longer interested in it and that the job prospects are few, science intensive, and low paying. They just balk at me when I say I’m not interested in it anymore and have discouraged the idea of me changing my major.

As I mentioned I’m failing trigonometry currently and cannot afford to have my GPA drop below a 3.0 or else I will lose precious scholarship money & financial aid.

I plan on changing my major regardless of what my parents say. As much as I love and appreciate my parents, they’re not being reasonable here and still assume that I’m the little tyke who wanted to go “exploring” when I was 5 years old out in the mountains.

I was thinking of changing my major to Public Administration as I’ve already taken a few classes. While I’m not particularly passionate about it, I do enjoy the classes I’ve taken and have done well in them. I was also thinking of switching my minor to something like Native American Studies or Southwestern Studies for personal enrichment and enjoyment and a way to boost my GPA. Or is that a bad idea?

I also plan on dropping both my trig and GIS classes and asking for an increase of hours at work since that will drop me down to 10 credit hours for the semester, but I will also lose financial aid for the semester as I won’t be classified as a full time student. Or is that a bad idea too?

What do you think?