Let's Get Down To Business

Well it's been two and a half years, and I can finally say that I like my major. I may even venture to say I love it.

For those unaware, I am a business major concentrating in entrepreneurship; and I notoriously hate school. I hate spending hours in class and taking notes.

And I hate studying. 

When people would ask me about my major and if I liked it, until now my honest answer would have been that I was not all that fond of it. My classes were boring. They weren't extraordinarily difficult, but it wasn't like I was a brilliant shining star of business either. Accounting and economics are kind of hard to get passionate about. 

I began to envy my friends who were genuinely in love with their major. I could see it in the way they talked about their classes and professors with such excitement. They actually enjoyed going to class... a foreign concept to me???

They were passionate about what they were doing. Art majors were passionate about creating. Journalism majors were passionate about writing and news. Science majors were passionate about living things and green stuff. Engineering majors, though difficult in course work, were passionate bout math and loved all the things I will never fully appreciate. 

So why didn't I just switch majors?

For several reasons. I applied to college planning to major in elementary education. I wrote essays on how this was my calling and how much I believed in myself as a difference-maker. Then in a random moment of spontaneity, I changed to business the summer before I started freshman year. To this day, I'm not sure why I made that decision at the time, because I didn't have any inclination as to what I would do with that. But sometime later, God placed a dream on my heart to own my own business. We'll get to that later. 

Another reason I never switched was out of pure pride and stubbornness. By the time I seriously started thinking about whether this was the right choice, I felt like I was too far into it. I didn't want to waste all the hard work I had put into the credits I had earned or set back my graduation. A part of me was also determined to not conform to the college stereotype of changing majors 17 times. There's nothing wrong with changing majors, so that was straight up pride on my part. 

I had an end goal, and business was the way to get there. But I still questioned my choice. I wondered if I would regret studying something I didn't like. Suddenly halfway through college, I became very panicky and frantic in thinking, what am I even doing with my life??? The question arose of whether I should choose something practical or something I love. Nine times out of ten, I'm on the side of doing something you love over doing something for money. I definitely wasn't doing entrepreneurship as means for money-making, so why was I doing it?

The biggest thing I wrestled with was whether or not I was using the gifts and passions God had placed on my heart. I love creativity and art and design. I also love words, and I like culture and history. So would I be used well in my current major? 

To me, that's the most important question I'd ask. Take time to self-reflect on the things you love, the things you're good at. I think God delights in placing specific passions and callings on our hearts and showing us how to use them. What better way to honor Him than this. 

Surprisingly, this story ends with me still a business major. 

The past couple of months, God has been speaking to my heart on this subject. Every time I go to a locally owned boutique or restaurant or coffee shop, something in me stirs. I follow a lot of small shops via Instagram, and I'm obsessed with learning their stories and stalking their websites.  Even in watching the movie La La Land, Ryan Gosling's dream of owning his own jazz lounge moved me. It's like God was reawakening a desire in my heart that I had forgotten. With that reawakening came revelation. 

He began to show me how business holds endless opportunities for creativity. Especially in owning my own small business, I have complete control of design from the name to the literal interior design of a building. Owning my own small business gives me an even broader platform from which to blog and share my art.

Business involves strategy and planning. There are so many thing that go into building, growing, and marketing a business. There are statistics and studies of human behavior. It's some challenging stuff that satisfies my intellectual, planner side. 

I love the whole girl boss movement. I love the boldness and bravery it takes to build something you love and share it with the world. I think that's why I adore small businesses so much... it's really special that people feel like contributing their own piece of themselves in a world run by large corporations. 

Something the Lord taught me through this whole process was the importance of waiting on Him and being sensitive to the Spirit. God placed a dream on my heart two and a half years ago; and even when I lost sight of that dream, God didn't stop working on my behalf. I had doubts that I had really heard from God or if going into business was simply my own impulsiveness. But at the same time, I wasn't receiving a word from God to go or do anything else. This became a teachable moment for me... I feel like most of our worries come from wondering about the future. So why would God reveal any more of His plan for me if I couldn't trust what He'd already given me? 

He places certain callings on our lives for a reason; and when He does, we can trust that He will come through for us. For me, being sensitive to the Spirit meant receiving the little things that God was speaking to my heart as confirmation. If I hadn't had an open heart seeking to hear from the Lord, those in-between moments that stirred my heart would have meant nothing to me. I would never have realized all the variety of things I loved could be found in business. For others, being open to the Holy Spirit means stepping out in bravery and obedience into a different major. It can be hard to distinguish God's voice from the others; but I know for me, His voice always comes in a way completely personal to me. He says that if we seek Him, we will find Him if we seek with all our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13). 

We can also take comfort in knowing that the Lord is with us in whatever major we're in. I know if I had switched majors, it wouldn't be the end of the world... God would still be with me through it all. I think the Lord is pleased with us wherever we're at, as long as we're glorifying Him in what we do. 

I thought I'd share this story with you all, because this whole process has been so special to me. I literally get teary-eyed when I think about how beautiful it is for small businesses to turn dreams into reality, and then I hate myself for being so melodramatic. And that's how I know the Lord has been preparing me this whole time to enter into something I'm passionate about that I didn't have to just settle for.

God works in the details; He never stops working, and I'm really thankful for that.