Week 2 Story: Major Trouble

At the beautiful University of Oklahoma, a man named Blake walked into his adviser, Sarah's, office.

"Good morning, Sarah!"

"Good morning, Blake.  How are things going with your Accounting major?  Your note you left was quite uh.. dramatic."

"Well,", Said Blake, "I thought I wanted to be an accountant for my dad's business, but I kinda realized that it just isn't a very exciting major.  All these numbers are starting to get to my head and I really don't think this is the path for me."

"Well you caught it early enough to where it shouldn't be a big deal!", Said Sarah, "Do you have any other majors in..."

"Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Biotechnology", Blake blurted out before she could finish the sentence.

"WOW!  That is quite the jump you are making there.  Are you sure you are ready to make that jump?"

"Yeah I'm super excited!  I figure that if I go into a major with a huge variety of applications that studies the beautifully complex universe that the passion I will gain from it will outweigh all the difficult work that comes with it."

"Okay," Said Sarah, "I'll make the change.  You'd better get to studying!"

"Thank you so much!  I'll be so much happier with this major I can just feel it!"

A couple years passed, and Blake was back in Sarah's office again.  Crying, he explained to her that he just couldn't juggle the demanding amount of time the major required with his work, relationship with his girlfriend, and fraternity partying.  After calming down, and with similar enthusiasm, he changed his major to nursing, believing that it would be less difficult and surely working with living things would be much more rewarding.

Blake lasted in the program for two years.  Having done most of his general education requirements, he was only one short year away from completing his major, but busted through Sarah's door once more.

"I just can't do it!  I'm a nobody, a failure.  This is hopeless!  I thought being in nursing would be better, and it was easier, but this internship I have been doing working with patients has made me absolutely miserable!  I have to deal with people complaining all the time, none of them have any patience, I had to give shots to screaming kids, and most of my patients smell absolutely awful!"

Blake's Inability to Choose His Major sourced from Pixabay

Sarah started, "Blake, you really need to.."

"I GOT IT!!  I GOT IT!  I know exactly what I want to do!  I'm gonna be a pilot!"

Sarah tolled her eyes.  "Blake, are you sure about this?  You are going into some serious debt at this point and we can only keep you around for so long!"

"I'm 1,000% positive!  This is the one you just wait you won't ever have to see me again to change my major!"

Blake ran out and began his training.  He excelled in his courses, flew all the hours he needed, got his pilot's license, and was on his way to become a pilot for an airliner.  Things were going great until he went to the doctor's office with the complaint of back pain.  The doctor informed him that all the sitting he had been doing in the airplane had brought serious damage to his spine, it was the worst he had ever seen!  If he didn't stop soon, his injuries could get so bad that he could be partially paralyzed.  Blake made his way to Sarah's office.

When he walked in, Sarah perked up.  It was the end of the semester and she knew Blake would be graduating soon.

"Well hello there, Blake!  Are you ready to finally be done with college?", she laughed, "You have only been here 10 years!  We were about to have to cut you off we just can't afford for you to keep taking up space in all these classes!"

"Yeah... About that.  I don't think I'm going to be a pilot. I'm going to be an accountant.  I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out, but I should have just stuck with it this whole time!  Plus, my dad told me I could take his company over when he passes if I can get the degree!"

Sarah gasped, "YOU WHAT!?"

"I know it is bad but if you can just.."

"Absolutely not!  You are on your last straw with this university as is and you will either get your degree as a pilot or you will leave this university.  Do you understand?"

"But..", Started Blake

"No 'but's, leave this university or get your degree.  We are done here."

Blake continued his work as a pilot.  Very soon after getting his job at an airliner, his paralyzation took effect and he ended up crashing the plane because of it.

The end.

Author's Note

In the original story which this is based, "The Man in the Moon", A blacksmith does not like his line of work and believes that being a variety of other things such as a rock on the side of a mountain, a rock cutter, the sun, and the moon would be much better.  A wise man grants him these wishes but every time he transforms, he realizes that each of them have their own problems.  By the end of this story, he is begging to be a blacksmith again.  However, the wise man does not grant him this, and he was stuck as the moon.  I made this into a modern day story about someone who is similar in the way he sees his difficulties in his major, and proceeds to change it many times.  For the most part, I stuck to the plot of the original story but completely changed the context and time period.

Bibliography
"The Man in the Moon" from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web source.