I gave a presentation recently in my Spanish class that you take as a requirement to end your chapter as a Spanish major. The first thing that it made me reflect on was the fact that throughout my time in college, I haven’t necessarily landed on a definite path. Sometimes this is something that worries me, especially when other people ask questions but I’ve realized that it’s a gift in how many paths there are for me to take. And aside from that decision, I also realize that I was extremely fortunate in the majors that I chose despite my current state of ambiguity. Being a Spanish major has allowed me to undergo a lot of personal growth. The opportunities that were afforded me due to studying Spanish and the mindset that I adopted as a Spanish major were pivotal in how I navigated my college years. So when I’m asked to give advice the majority of that advice revolves around how majoring in Spanish has an effect on your personal life and core values.

My first piece of major advice is to have a core reason for choosing it as a major. I say this, because in my own experience, I had a lot of people who were asking me why I chose to major in Spanish, especially due to the fact that I am not of Latina descent. And that is not to say that other people’s opinions should govern your decisions, or make you doubt your reasoning, but for me, I liked to have something of substance to tell people asking me about my major, because that helped me get a sense of why it was important for myself. And that is another part of why having a core reason is important. When you have a major that is relatively broad and allows for you to have so many different career paths and life paths, it is vital that you go into it with a sense of how you want it to affect you. It could benefit you in your pursuit to live abroad, work abroad, in your day-to-day interactions serving as a supplement to your life, for cultural knowledge, or to simply gain a new skill. This connects to my next piece of advice, which is similar, and it is that you shouldn’t let other people’s opinions impact your goals and experiences. What made me think of this piece of advice was that when I chose to study abroad  A lot of people expressed their fear of living in Latin America, and that fear is expressed when I speak of traveling to many destinations but having spent months there, making memories and not having a single scare of my own I can’t imagine setting those sorts of limitations on someone and other people’s opinions are often projections.

My greatest piece of advice would be to travel, and if you can’t go abroad to find a local community or even just a store or a restaurant with native speakers. I went to Costa Rica and during my time there I think I experienced some of the most personal growth That I’ve had in my life. Whether it was with the other study abroad kids and having my patience challenged or learning to live with another family, which had its good and bad side, I learned a lot about myself. I think that, in terms of living with a host family, the only thing that I could say was bad (if I was to go so far to even say that) was that I missed feeling like I had my own space. But aside from that, we had a lot of freedom to explore the country and I think we all gained a sense of independence and self-assurance. My favorite memories are those in which I was speaking with locals and I think I went out of my comfort zone to do that because I get nervous about speaking with native speakers sometimes. So going abroad is definitely something that will stretch your limits and give you confidence for future experiences.

Lastly, for the purposes of learning Spanish itself, I would give the advice that you should be using external tools. Personally, I watched a lot of telenovelas like Sobreviviendo a Pablo Escobar and Siempre bruja. It’s also helpful to watch things that are related to a field that you want to go in or are in a geographic location that you want to visit because it’ll give you specific vocabulary that is used.

By Kaitlyn Harris