How I got rid of my declaration blues...
Hello everyone! It is Meghan here, the secretary of UMHISA! This is my first blog post and I could not be more excited to let you get to know me. After many years of debating my major, my minor, my faculty and ultimately my identity... I wanted to share what I have learnt in my university journey.
Since starting university four years ago, I have switched my career path about 15 times... I wish I were joking, but I wanted to do nothing and everything all at once! I have found many people struggle with this, so if you are reading this and relating it is NOT just you. It is a part of a typical academic journey, where some know their path, while others have many paths.
I had a very rough first year, which included barely passing. I had pressures to go into the health field and be a radiologist, and for a while, I thought this was what I wanted. I took many random classes and stacked one semester with a few biologies and statistics courses. *ROOKIE MISTAKE - BALANCE YOUR COURSE LOADS* I woke up every day unhappy with my performance, unhappy with what I was learning, and this showed in my marks.
Did I mention I also was working full time and volunteering with a female high school hockey team through all this? Well, I set myself up to fall flat on my face that first year, and trust me I did. I was ready to give up school. I decided that summer to re-learn who I was and what made me happy. (I highly recommend self-care and being kind to yourself). I went on a soul-searching journey to discover what made me passionate. I realized it was my community, my ancestors, the struggle for equality, the injustices in the past, and living in my People's homeland. I realized it was being Metis.
I always struggled with my Metis identity growing up. Living in an urban city, I thought I wasn't “Metis enough.” I decided to take an Intro to Native Studies class with Fred Shore. I went into this class thinking it would be exciting and a well-written requirement class to take. I never thought it would change the direction of my studies. I sat in the front row of every class, so intrigued to learn the history of First Nations, Metis and Inuit. So interested in all this history that had been left out of my high school history classes. Fred Shore was the cutest little professor I had ever had. He wore crocs to every seminar and taught through storytelling. I would be in the last class he ever taught as he retired at the end of our course. Little did he know he inspired me to pursue a degree where I would work with Indigenous communities.
This is where my mind changed about 15 times, from social work to business, leadership, human rights, and education. I wanted to do them all, but none felt quite right. It was so frustrating to have a direction that felt right, with no idea which program to declare. I continued choosing courses I was interested in, including a Metis history course.
- Meghan
