My journey to Cognitive Science

Coming into college, I wanted to major in forensic psychology, but unfortunately SUNY Oswego did not offer that as a major so I majored in general psychology. My first semester I came in with 15 credits and adjusted to the schedule that my advisor randomly made me for me. I was put into a class called brains, minds and consciousness (cog266), which of course seemed intimidating to someone who didn’t even know what consciousness was. That semester I did not do well in any of my courses and even got a C- in my first psychology course. I went to my advisor at the time, who was also my professor for my first child development course, and he had expressed his concern for me doing poorly in his class. This made me fret; I felt like Psychology may not be the right major for me, but then he noticed that I got an A in that brains, minds and consciousness class that I randomly took. Now, I still had no idea what Cognitive Science was, but all I knew was I loved the theories that were proposed in cog266 and I loved the way Professor Rhodes taught such a challenging course. My advisor gave me the idea of maybe picking up Cognitive Science as a minor to see if I would enjoy a few more classes. I met up with Professor Graci to discuss picking up cognitive science as a major or minor, and at first I was highly intimidated. I thought to myself that I would never be able to take cog212/241, since another student expressed to me it made him and other computer science majors drop their major. For awhile I was hesitant on continuing taking the rest of my Cognitive Science courses and just kept going on my Psychology track. I was going to drop the major until I needed another elective and took cog166 with Professor Vampola. After I took that course, everything made sense to me and I realized that everything happens for a reason and things fall into place without looking for them. I once again met up with Professor Graci and expressed to him that I was afraid of the hard classes that were to come my way. He said one thing to me that still sticks out to this very moment - how would you know you can't do something if you never even try it? For some reason, this clicked in my head real fast and I immediately knew I had to take a chance and go out of my comfort zone and what I was used to. Ever since then, I haven't backed down and I am amazed by the things I am capable of doing that I always thought I couldn't. I have made amazing connections with all my professors and value their thoughts and wisdom more than they know. This major has helped me become more aware of who I am, while searching for the meaning of who we are and what our mind, brain and soul actually mean. As I look back on my journey, I feel lucky that I happened to pick a university that offers such an interdisciplinary major. When I tell my friends from other universities about what I learn, they are amazed and jealous that their school doesn't over something so incredible. I am passionate about what I learn and find myself using this knowledge in every day life. If I didn’t major in Cognitive Science, I truly don’t know what else would spark my interest and make me think in such complex ways. My favorite thing about this major is that it allows you to have an endless amount of interests from pure science and facts to pseudoscience.