“Prior to coming to UBC I was [a student] at Langara and I wanted to be a Dietitian… I took a bunch of science courses and I realized it wasn’t for me. I had to be honest with myself and give up on a dream I had been working on for the past 5 years. Emotionally it was hard to disconnect from my dream, because I thought if I set my mind to it, it will work out exactly the way that I want it to. I was kind of naïve about that. Looking back, although it was painful, it was the right thing for me to do…”

“How did you end up majoring in psychology and minoring in commerce?”
“I would put so much effort into my courses and I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted. I kept hitting this roadblock. And then I saw my friend taking business courses and she really liked them. … So I took some Econ courses at Langara and I really enjoyed it and saw myself succeeding; and then I thought, maybe this is a better option for me. And ultimately I wanted to work with people; I enjoy learning about the relationships between people and the personalities within each individual, especially in terms of business. That’s how I came up with psychology and commerce as my degree in the end. It took me some time to discover what my natural inclination was, and I had a lot of people judging me for aiming for a BA instead of a BSc. At the time it was embarrassing for me, but now I’ve accepted it and I’ve seen the end result and I’m fine.”

“Any last words of advice for undergrads?”
“Sometimes the path that you think is best for you isn’t the best one for you; sometimes you have to redirect yourself for a better option and take other opportunities, because you never know how taking that moment to think or taking that other course could change your whole path. You never know until you try.”