My Future Career :0 (scary!!!)

Coming into UT, I was expecting to major in something in the liberal arts. Although I’ve loved my classes this semester, to be quite honest, they’ve shown me that I’m not sure I’d like to major in the liberal arts. In fact, I’m trying to switch into the school of communications for next year to major in advertising and perhaps minor in graphic design. Here’s how I got to this decision.

The first red flag was my problems with one of my classes in particular, AMS 310. In American Studies, we learn about American history with an anthropological focus. Although the content of this class is super interesting, it is very different from my other classes. A lot of my educational fulfillment comes from applying what I’ve learned in classes to the real world. With what I’ve learned in UGS 303, I can see how philosophical theories and concepts come into play in the real world and in the media. With what I’ve learned in HDO 301, I can recognize the foundations of relationships and understand conflict resolution in everyday life. But in AMS 310, what we learn is what we learn and the information honestly can’t be applied to much. I totally understand that AMS 310 is still a highly important class and I’m not contesting that fact, but sometimes the class can bore me.

Another thing that led me to question my major and career path is my desire to work with others and collaborate. My only class that resembles this aspect of work is HDO 301, which has been my favorite class this semester. In so many of the HDO lectures, I feel as if I already know the information, but Dr. Markman is just putting a name to the human tendencies we discuss. What we learn in HDO 301 is so fundamental, yet so interesting at the same time because it delves into the everyday interactions that we don’t usually think about. These topics have intrigued me and made me want to find a career path that includes a lot of human interaction.

One last aspect of my classes that has made me question my career path is my need for creativity in my work. None of my classes have had assignments that left room for creativity; all of my classes are fairly straightforward and black and white. I’ve definitely realized that I need space for creativity in my life and my life; I usually don’t get bored with school and I love learning, but I’ve been growing uninterested in these classes where all answers are either right or wrong. Although I’ve tried to fill this void by making art in my free time (painting, making music, and writing), I think I’ve realized that I need this kind of pursuit in my future career, too.

Although I might even change majors again or advertising might not work out, I know that trying new things and learning about new career options can never hurt. Finding what you want to do in the world is a process that takes time, but I know I’ll get there.

A fight with my parents that makes me sound like a spoiled brat!!!

Earlier this semester, I had a situation in which I resolved a conflict between my parents and I. After they dropped me off and helped me move into my dorm, I thought that it was only appropriate that I take my parents off tracking apps like Find My Friends and Life360; I’m legally an adult and living in a different city than my parents. I’m the last child in the home, so both my mom and dad were having a hard time with their sudden transition to becoming empty-nesters and took their separation anxiety out on me. They both told me that they felt like I was “trying to cut them off” and that they were going to stop paying for my phone bill unless I reinstalled the apps, in which case they’d continue paying it.

To be quite honest, the way that this conflict played out does paint me as the stubborn type. I refused to reinstall the apps and explained to my parents my reasons for unsharing my location. But they didn’t budge on their position either. We were at a standstill. While in this standstill, I talked with my oldest sister Abbey for advice because of her experience with these types of situations with my parents when she was in college. She agreed that our parents were being rash, but she also said that she wouldn’t get involved with the dispute. She told me to accept my parents’ declaration and get a job to pay for my own phone bill. This was an obvious solution and a very smart one, too; accepting my parents’ word and paying for my own phone bill shows maturity and independence on my part and takes emotion and arguments out of the equation. I decided to follow my sister’s advice.

I called my parents and told him that I would start paying for my own phone bill with a job I’d get and they were satisfied and, honestly, quite surprised. I don’t think they expected that answer from me; I think they expected me to give in and reinstall the apps. I finished the phone call and the next day, I got a call from my dad saying that they thought through things too fast and they’ll continue paying the phone bill.

This is an odd action for anyone in their position in an argument. My parents got what they wanted, simply and plainly. I gave in and agreed to pay my own phone bill. But, in reality, they didn’t get what they REALLY wanted; their main objective was for me to reinstall Find My Friends and Life360. Paying the phone bill is not a burden for them, but they tried to use it as leverage against me to get me to reinstall the tracking apps. It seems like this conflict was resolved on its own.

I think HDO 301’s use of planning sheets during our Negotiation Exercises are a very valuable tool and connect to my situation with my parents. What I needed to find out was what my parents really prioritized over everything in this discussion – getting me back on their grid. In a way, I kept this information in the back of my mind as I agreed to their plan for me to get a job; I knew they wouldn’t be satisfied with my refusal to reinstall the apps.

Starting off HDO 301

Since starting HDO 301, I’ve started noticing intricacies in everyday relationships, whether they be with friends, family, or professors. It truly is an interesting experience to take this class first semester of my freshman year, a time where one can see a plethora of relationships forming and sometimes falling apart within a matter of days. At the same time these relationships are forming in this environment, people are interacting and defining norms and standards for their relationships. Especially when doing the assignment where we observed relationships in a public setting through the lens of Fiske’s four relationship types, my eyes were opened to these hidden intricacies. Transactions and exchanges are vitally important to pay attention to when trying to understand the inner-workings of relationships; the mere way someone could borrow a spoon from someone or buy a bagel sets subconscious expectations with the other person in the transaction.

One experience I had in my social life at UT this first semester clearly showed me the importance of transactions in everyday relationships. I had been steadily hanging out with one friend from orientation for the first couple weeks of school and the next week, the workload got particularly heavy so we both didn’t see each other much. Unexpectedly, she told me that she was mad at my lack of effort to hang out with her, even when she hadn’t reached out to me either. Her outburst of anger caught me off guard, but we’ve since hung out and she’s not mad at me anymore. Although this turn of events seems trivial and unnecessary to talk about, I think it showed me how important “give and take” is in a relationship and how different people may have different expectations of how you “give and take.” Even though hanging out with another person isn’t necessarily a transaction of goods, time spent with another person is still time, and time is a very valuable resource. This small situation was an interesting experience to have while taking HDO 301 because I noticed how applicable the ideas taught in the class are to everyday life.

I’ve also realized that Human Dimensions of Organizations play into all of my other classes seamlessly. When learning about the Native Americans’ cultural unity and lack of private property and in pre-colonial North America in HIS 315K, I noticed that the relationships among their communities could be defined as communal sharing. When learning about the pleas of Asian-Americans calling for the abolition of discriminatory anti-immigration laws, I observed how the Asian Americans were essentially in a large-scale negotiation with the United States government; in one excerpt of “Appeal” from the Chinese Equal Rights League, they even begin naming trade-offs they’d take in exchange for the laws’ abolitions. When learning about Marx’s Communist Manifesto in UGS 303, I saw how Marx structured communist society in a way that almost perfectly describes communal sharing relationships: “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Human Dimensions of Organizations truly does fit into various disciplines and I’ve found it to be applicable in every single class I’m taking this semester.