INTRO: Why Blog?

Where to begin... I'll start with a little bit about me!

If you read the "about" page, my name is Françoise Aguilera. My friends, family, and basically everyone call me Franci. I'm 19 years old and I go to Florida International University AKA, FIU (I'll tell you about my major in a little bit).

I guess I'll also add a list of my favorites.

Favorite color: Purple

Favorite animal: Lion

Favorite app: Instagram

Favorite season: Summer

Favorite number(s): 3 and 13

I'm in my second year at FIU majoring in Psychology DUN DUN DUN... Why psych??? OK! OK! I'll tell you, I took two psychology courses in high school and to me it was fascinating, and sometimes mind boggling... I definitely thought I was going to be like Dr. Evelyn Vogul from Dexter, a neuropsychiatrist profiling psychopaths... Crazy I know... BUT, I love children and definitely want to teach.. So... why am I blogging?? I am blogging for so many reasons!

STORY TIME!

Before I begin my final story on why I've started this blog here's a little piece of information you'll need to know before.. I'm the first born, I have one little brother who is about to go into high school. What does this mean? My parents and I had to figure out how to apply for high school, make decisions that would help me in college, and apply for FAFSA and college without any help from anyone we knew.. Let's just say I was the experiment and it was an adventure...

What really set us off was my last experience in adding a second degree to my academic track... First of all, I had no Idea how to add a second degree/major whatever the school wants to call it. Luckily, I'm in a sorority and other girls helped me out on where to go and who to talk to.

Why didn't I ask my advisor for help?

GETTING AN APPOINTMENT IS IMPOSSIBLE. Especially when registration for classes open up.

Ok, so first I'm told 3 different options on how to add my major/degree. I opt out to show up in person to the education building and talk to an advisor there, who will get the magic paper that I have to sign and BAM I'd be done.

I arrive and the lady at the front desk has me make an appointment to see an advisor there.

I finally show up to my appointment and tell the advisor what my plans were. She pulls up my degree audit which is a summary of what your major and the school requires you to complete in order to graduate. She tells me that she has to ask the assistant director if my plan to add elementary education is right for where I stand. (I got in with a lot of credits so I'm about to graduate) So I'm sitting there like... I definitely have time to finish a second major why would they say no?

This lady comes back and says "sooo... to be an education major you will be required to do field hours and an internship your last semester which will add another two years to your college career"

I'm like ...OK AND?

She replies "This means instead of graduating in four years you will graduate in five"

I tell her "That is totally fine with me, I have a scholarship that pays up to five years, I won't have trouble paying for classes, I was prepared for something like this and I definitely have time."

She then replies "The directors probably won't sign off on this since it will be backing you up a year from your projected graduation date"

I reply with "OK, so what are my options"

She tells me "Well, what do you plan on teaching?"

I tell her "If I had to choose ONE subject then I guess I'll go with English"

She then told me "So I recommend that you go to the english department and get your second major in English. When you graduate you'll take a test that will get you your temporary license to teach. It lasts three years. When it expires you'll be eligible to take a test to get your professional license."

Our meeting basically ended there, and when I left I was more confused, stressed and conflicted. Did I really want to do this? Should I change my career? I call my mom and she's also confused.

I went to my friend's house (Patty), told her what had happened (she knew my plans) and I start thinking, FIU has all these campaign posters about graduating in four years and taking 30 credits a year to get out faster. I'm starting to think WOW THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEIR STATISTICS AND FUNDING! The school is about to advise me into this longer, more complicated, and more expensive route to help themselves. Patty and I are heated at this point.. she tells me "go email the directors and get what you want. It's the only way they'll listen."

So I Find the director... Well, sort of, theres like five directors in the same department, so I find three that seem fit to help by their vague description on the website, and the next day one of them replies that she would help me and asked me for a few pieces of information and that with that she would look into it.

A week goes by and NOTHING, NADA, ZIP. THEY FORGOT ABOUT ME!

I show up to the building again and, I ask the receptionist to see if the lady I was emailing was in her office. She wasn't. So I told her to leave a message telling her I had stopped by in regards to my email that was sent a week ago.

By the end of the day the director emailed me and asked me to meet her the next day at her office. IT'S A DATE!

I prepared myself for the worst. I told myself I wasn't going to leave without signing the magic paper. I went in for my meeting and we go over my audit once again. She explains to me what my pace and courses would be like if I decided to add this second major.

Here I'm thinking "She's about to tell me NO"

She finishes her explanation and asks me "Are you sure you want to add this as your second major?"

without hesitating I'm like "Yes, I am"

She says "Perfect, I'll go get the form for you to sign, and send it in to get processed"

She comes back, has me sign a paper, which honestly made me feel like I was about to sell my soul to the devil, and I was out of there!

Lesson of the story: Don't settle, stand up for yourself and speak up! If you feel something isn't right, it's probably because it isn't!

In the end, I started to think of people that probably would have just settled for the advisor's advice and it bothered me. I wasn't changing my major, I'm a good student, and I realized that the school doesn't care as long as they still look good in the end. So the point of this blog is to help other students that feel just as lost. Hopefully some of my posts can be relatable and helpful. Feel free to email me with topics that are common, or uncommon. Send me stories of your experience! You never know who else is out there going through the same issue, and if you have a solution, great! If you don't, I'll try to help, or maybe someone that reads the story will comment the answer to your questions!