by Keith Reeves

Created on: July 16, 2008

When I started college, I wanted to study Astronomy. I was taking the classes that were needed to pursue that degree. The horror of Calculus and Physics made this endeavor more like climbing Mt. Everest.

During my second semester, I needed to take an introductory class to Astronomy. I was excited for the chance to get into something that I really enjoyed. However, as I found out during the semester, this was not the degree that I wanted to pursue. I was not absorbing the material at all. Homework assignments seemed like they did not follow with what the teacher had lectured. I hated the whole experience of that class.

On day, I was talking with my girlfriend about my Astronomy class. She suggested that I should look into changing my major. I took her up on that suggestion. The only problem that I had was that I did not know what major to choose. I knew that I had always loved law and learning about it. My girlfriend suggested that I become a lawyer. I was hesitant with that idea because it was an intense field and I did not think that I would do well as a lawyer.

What I decided to do was to go through all the degrees that the university had at the time. I circled the ones that I had interest in and crossed out the ones that I did not like. During my search I came across Criminal Justice Administration. I did not know much about this degree but it intrigued me because it would deal with the justice system.

From the list of majors that I had selected to choose from, I felt that a Criminal Justice degree would be the best one for me pursue. Once again, I had to take an introductory class for the degree. I made an oath to myself that if I did not do well in the class that I would change my major.

The class was not an easy class. The professor would lecture with PowerPoint slides that would be packed with text and then divert from the slides. The slides were not supplied anywhere else. To do well on the tests, I needed to be able to answer them completely and consisely. He would say that there were lines provided for the answers, if a student wrote anything else after the provided space he would not read it. For one test, we were taught twelve different cases that had created changes of policy in the criminal justice system. He only asked about one case, and we needed to describe when it happened, why it happened, and what happened.

After receiving the highest grade possible for a class, I knew that this was the degree I needed to be in. I was studying material that I loved and wanted to know more about. I performed the best in every criminal justice class I took. It is kind of funny because when I was little I said that I wanted to be a police officer. Even though I am not a police officer now, I am studying the same field. I am grateful that I changed my degree, or I would not be pursuing a Master's degree in Criminal Justice Administration today.

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