I was in my Linguistics 120 – Structure of the English Language (Syntax I) course in the gloomy Kissena Hall building a couple weeks ago when the teacher announced that the head of the department, Professor Robert Vago, was going to come in to make a few announcements. He asked some questions regarding next semester and the number of perspective students for each course, blah blah….

Then he announced that there is a scholarship for Applied Linguistics Majors that we could apply for. It sounded great. It was for 4 semesters of full-tuition coverage, and for someone in a financial slump like me, it sounded like I needed to change majors, if only for a semester to apply for the scholarship. I thought about it all day, all week, all of the beginning of the next week, until I finally got an appointment with Professor Vago regarding the change of majors. He asked me, “Are you intending on teaching ESL in public schools in NY?” My initial reaction was, “Ugh. No way.” Instead, I replied, “I intend of being a performer.” He said, “Why would you change majors then? That makes no sense. You want to do a double-major in Linguistics and Music because you like to study the interdisciplinary relations of language and music because you are studying opera. It makes sense for you to do General Linguistics instead, which is less credits and more about the bigger picture of language than how to teach non-native speakers English in NY.”

 

“DUH JX.” WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!?

I felt like such an idiot that the path from Professor Vago’s office to the stairs, down the stairs, through the lobby, and out the door, seemed never ending. I beat myself in the head, saying, “DUH.”

 

Then, as if it were planned, my classmate, Inaka (who is an actual Applied Linguistics student), ran into me right outside the door, asking me about the scholarship. She asked me whether or not I was going to change majors or not.

She simply said, “Trust me, if you don’t want to teach English in a NYS public school, don’t do it. No matter how much the scholarship gives you, you don’t want to be distracted by something you’re not even interested in just to be able to pay for it. That’s counter-productive. You’ve got so much more going for you. Don’t waste your time.” Now I felt like continuously banging myself on the brick wall of that ugly building for the rest of the afternoon.

Sometimes we get distracted by physical, emotional, materialistic, temporary, superfluous temptations.

We must, MUST, MUST, remember to stay focused. Or at least, surround ourselves with people who will remind us to stay on the right path.

The thing is, I knew somewhere deep inside the moment I started considering the scholarship. I knew that something wasn’t quite right.

Lesson: Trust your gut feeling. It’s always right. Well… even if it turns out wrong, at least you know you won’t regret it. It’s your GUT. You can’t lie to yourself.