Friendships Across Interests- Meeting People Through The Explore Program

If I was forced to pick a major before I started college, I probably still would’ve picked chemical engineering. But if I had entered Northeastern as a chemical engineer major, I never would’ve taken General Chemistry 1. I would’ve been in General Chemistry for Engineers. And I wouldn’t have met my best friend, Medha. If I had started college as a chemical engineering major, I would’ve chosen to live in the Engineering LLC. I wouldn’t have met my amazing roommates, Desire and Logan. It wasn’t until after my dialogue last summer that I could even say I had any friends in my major. Most of my friends at Northeastern, I’ve met outside of engineering. My college life would be so different if I had come in engineering.

I hate when engineers say that they’re major is “one of the hardest in the school” and describe it as “soul sucking” and “depressing.” The thought of taking engineering classes so does not make me feel that way. Sure, it sucks to have 20 credit semesters because every class has a lab co-requisite. I’m not too crazy about the twenty page lab reports either, and don’t even get me started on how royally screwed your grade can be if you end up with even one weak link in your assigned group for the semester. But every major has its ups and downs. My roommate Desiré is a theatre major and if you asked me which one of us has a harder major, I’m not sure I’d be able to answer you. Sure, I have to derive complex derivatives until my fingers bleed, but most nights, she stays so late at the Theatre Lab working on a show that she doesn’t even have time to eat dinner. My other roommate, Logan, a communications major, spent so much time working with the Huntington News freshman year that I went months without seeing him, despite the fact that he lived in the same building as me. And my friend Medha, her classes might seem more straightforward to me, but they require a certain way of thinking. Plus, as a pre-Med student, she has the additional stressor of the MCAT and med school applications constantly looming over her head.

No one goes through college thinking, “Wow, my classes are so easy. I am not challenged at all, and it’s so easy for me to get good grades.” That doesn’t happen. All majors are challenging in some way. Desiré might not have as much homework as I do, but if she misses even one acting class, her graded drops by an entire letter. I may not have to write 200 pages worth of papers like CSSH students, but 12 problem sets a semester seems po-tay-to po-tah-to.

One of the other co-ops at my job said the other day that he can’t see why people would come to a school like Northeastern for theatre or english or music. He also mentioned that it’s not really a useful major because it’s so hard to be successful in those fields. I pointed out to him that it’s hard to be extraordinarily successful in any field. The chances that I’ll be the next Stephen Hawking are as slim as the chances of a current film student directing the next box office hit. I also pointed out that just because Northeastern may be known for its engineering and computer science programs, that doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t have other programs that are substantially better than those of other schools.

If I only had engineering friends, I wouldn’t be able to text Medha every time I feel sick. I wouldn’t have seen so many ART and Central Square Theatre shows at the recommendation of Desiré. I wouldn’t have known about various festivals around Boston that Logan heard about through Huntington News. If I hadn’t been undeclared, I doubt I’d have very many friends outside of my major. I’d probably be like every other engineering student trapped in their “my life sucks” bubble, not realizing that other majors have their own stuff going on that tires them out just as much as hours of fluid mechanics Youtube videos tire me out. In that way, being undeclared has increased how much I’ve learned at Northeastern. Hearing other people’s career goals and academic paths and why they chose different things and how they feel their choices will benefit them in the future opens my eyes to all the different paths there are out there to take.