Today started out deliciously.
Yes, ma’am.
A big plate of French toast topped with cinnamon, chia seeds and syrup was exactly what I was craving this morning. I’ve actually been craving French toast for more than a week now, but have been too lazy to make it.
Pretty sure it’s ridiculously easy to make and takes five minutes… not sure why I’ve been too lazy!
Digging into the sweet, doughy bread is worth the extra effort!
Importance of Electives
When I was on the UCF campus last Friday, a bunch of college memories came rushing back to me.
As I walked around campus, I passed buildings where I attended class regularly, most of them in the communications building since I majored in advertising and public relations.
I did have a handful of classes in other buildings for my minor (marketing), undergraduate prerequisite classes and electives.
When I first got to college, I remember feeling annoyed by the fact that UCF required its students to take a certain number of electives.
It wasn’t until I took an elective class that I absolutely loved the second semester of my senior year that I understood the importance of electives. (I saved most of my electives for my senior year so I would have an “easier” time at the end of my college career.)
The elective was personal fitness and we learned all about nutrition, health, physical fitness and the science behind it all. I was fascinated and honestly enjoyed studying the material and found myself absorbing the information like a sponge.
My experience during my final semester in college makes me wonder how many people change their major after taking an elective class and falling in love with the material. I truly believe that if I had taken my personal fitness class earlier in my college career, I would’ve switched majors.
I’m very happy with my degree, but during personal fitness it was like a light went off in my mind and a spark ignited.
Questions of the Morning
- Did you have to take elective classes in college or high school? Did you have a favorite class or one that you absolutely loathed?
- Do you think elective classes are important?
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Your french toast looks delicious!
I took child care classes electives and then later I got my degree in liberal studies, which has nothing to do with childcare.
The ones I hated the most were the required math classes and speech!
If i could go back now, I would also take fitness and nutririon classes.
I agree! I thought electives were pointless until I took a marketing class and ended up tacking on a marketing and advertising concentration to my graphic design major. It’s definitely helped me out a lot in the career world!
Even though you’re very happy with your major… you can always go back! I was a communication/PR major in college and went back for my nursing/nurse practitioner degrees a year later. You’d be surprised at how much the health/fitness/medical field lacks communication-wise. We need more people that know how to write and communicate effectively. I realized I wanted to do something else my senior year as well but sometimes wish I would have known earlier and gone to medical school. I definitely wish I would have taken more electives freshman year rather than just core courses.
Enjoy your day, though. Love your blog 🙂
i’ve thought about it many times… 🙂 we’ll see what the future holds! i do LOVE writing, but a job in the fitness/health field really, really intrigues me.
We obviously had the same idea. As a current UCF student I saved ALL of my electives for senior year too! Not only am I finishing up personal fitness class, but also bowling AND salsa.
I know, I’m a winner
i took ballroom dancing. 🙂
Haha I was between that and salsa! It came down to how often I thought I would use the dance in real life, and I didn’t see myself going to many renaissance balls in the distant future. But hey, different strokes for different folks 😀
Ha! Senior year I took intro ballet with my roommate (we were both science majors and pretty uncoordinated!) It was terrible, never again. We didn’t even get to wear tutus.
I think electives are important because they let you explore other areas that you may not have known you were interested it. I majored in journalism (advertising) and minored in psych, but loved my nutrition electives so much that I was only a class away from minoring it Food Science as well… if I would have gotten started earlier, I’m certain I would have switched majors, too!
J- I was on full scholarship so I took advantage of electives. The best one i took was sewing. What a great life time skill! I can now sew all my drapes and table dressings–easy stuff I know—but invaluable skill! Have a great day–E
i always said i wish there was just a general home ec class offered in college. i seriously lack general skills like sewing!
Julie – I love PB fingers! Yours is the first blog I ever read regularly. You inspired me to start my own blog in order to get my writing juices flowing! check it out — blondebostonian.com
I think electives are so important! They give you an insight into topics that your direct major doesn’t normally cover. One of my fav electives in college was Film Noir. I was an English major, but was always interested in film studies. We got to watch amazing old movies like The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce. Who DOESN’T love a class where you watch movies all day?!
Honestly when I was a freshman I thought not have a major (being “undeclared”) was stupid and a waste of time. Well fast forward 7 years and I’m back at college to get a completely different undergraduate degree (going from Information Sciences to Health and Physical Education!). Now I wish I was Undeclared back in 2000 so I could take a variety of electives and see what I truly liked instead of just sticking to something I wasn’t too sure about. Oh well. Hindsight is always 20/20!!
I loved taking electives, actually.. most of them were in history and poly sci, which ended up being my majors.. IN grad school you were required to have a certain number of interdisciplinary courses (ie electives) during the program, and I feel like it was such a huge benefit.. Also doesn’t fry your brain out on the subject you’re focusing on!
French toast looks great! Never thought to put chia seeds on….I’ll have to try it!
I feel like, without electives, school could’ve ended up feeling like a chore!! I took some of my favorite college courses outside my major/minor and fell in love with the Classics courses about ancient Greece and famous philosophers. I also met one of my best friends in a intermediate volleyball class, so VOILA thank GOODNESS for elective fun!
I totally felt the same way when I first saw the monstrous list of electives I had to take at UMass Amherst (where I started out)! That quickly changed.
I absolutely loved a class called Microbiology of Cancer and Aids. My professor, Dr. Wilmore Webley (amazing name, I know!), was incredible and spends his life researching cancer and aids. I was excited for every lecture.
I also had a class on the History of Vienna that was so interesting. Their culture is so different and we learned about renowned artists like Klimt.
Sorry to go on and on, I just really loved my electives! NERD ALERT MUCH?!
I definitely agree that electives are important! After taking my first criminal justice elective while getting my psychology degree, I decided to get a double major in it! I
I then went on to get a Masters in criminal justice with a focus on gender, domestic and sexual violence again due to some electives I took that really peaked my interest in the topics.
I am in my third undergraduate year in Computer Science. I have recently become very passionate about nutrition, and am taking a Health and Wellness class next semester.
Just when I was starting to doubt my major choice, I found a grad school that has an entire CS lab dedicated to Wellness Innovation. Talk about a perfect match!
I think I’ll go make french toast now…. : )
I agree on the electives. The first elective I took my freshman year was Intro to Philosophy and I loved it! I almost had a minor in philosophy but when I chose to graduate a year early since I had met my credit fulfillment I could only graduate with my major since I was 3 credits shy on a minor.
I think electives are important because like you said you may discover that you have a passion for something you never knew about. My boyfriends little bro is taking skiing as an elective for the spring semester and I’m jealous that my school didn’t offer that, but it would be a little difficult to ski in the middle of NYC.
In highschool I was terrified of sciences and avoided them at all costs and ended up doing a degree in business. After I finished I decided nutrition was what I wanted and went and took a bunch of science classes and now I have 1.5 years left of my degree In nutrition (intent of being a dietitian). Really wish I would have tried more science electives in highschool, could have saved me some time!
I totally agree! I took a global health elective- kind of like yours about nutrition+ proper health procedures, but on a larger scale to include minority-specific issues and promotion of health in 3rd world nations. This class is what sparked me to start working towards Doctors Without Borders instead of spinning my wheels in my chosen major
My school also offers history of religion& violence (crazy super interesting), the toxicology of recreational drugs, History of sex, and the history of witch hunting…We’re awesome 😉
I wish I would have taken an elective on nutrition and personal fitness. I agree with the importance of electives. To me they make your studies more rounded!
I think SPEECH class should be MANDATORY! I took it as an elective and saw other students in my class start off stuttering and shifting their feet to leaving as confident, charismatic speakers. It is such a wonderful skill to have! (and makes you a better writer too because we had to create all of our own speech ideas and speeches!)
Hiya! I graduated from UCF with a degree in Sports and Fitness…just curious who your teacher was!
oh gosh, if you said her name, i think i’d remember… she was really nice and rather softspoken. i wish i could remember!!
oooooh now I want some French toast–YUMM!
I liked most of my elective classes! I actually really liked Public Speaking–totally random, but I learned so much!
I graduated in sports and exercise science with a minor in nutrition because of a nutrition class I took–so fascinating! I think the body is amazing, and I loved studying about it. So glad I can put it to use 🙂
Your french toast looks delicious, I can’t make good looking (or tasting)french toast, my kids won’t even eat it :p
This post couldn’t have come at a better time, I’m starting college next month ( I know backwards, I had kids then went to school) so far my only elective is cross training 🙂 but I know I want to take a photography class later. I’m going into Media technology and entertainment, but I’m not quit sure where that will take me. Thanks for the post.
I’m in an IB school so we don’t have many options when it comes to electives. I wish we had a nutrition or life skills class but we don’t:( so right now I’m in Econ and french!
We had our major to complete, any minors we chose, and then Gen Ed requirements: foreign language (even taking AP French didn’t get me out of it), Non-Western and Comparative Studies, Oral Communications, Quantitative Reasoning (such as statistics), two writing courses, and Phys Ed (I took First Aid). These took up most of my time and I can only remember taking a handful of ‘elective’ classes (I was a history major with a minor in religion; off the top of my head I only really remember taking electives in linguistics, English classes, and Latin).
I originally started school as a chemistry/pre-pharmacy major, but changed my major after taking a psychology class in my first semester. Now I’m in grad school for research psychology, studying spatial memory and navigation, and I love it!
Yep, I had to take electives and yes, I think they’re important, particularly if you’re not 100% dead set on what it is you want to do. I think it’s also good to take them in order to round yourself out as a person. Having said that though, the electives I really wanted (those geared toward health and fitness) were offered to students majoring in kinesiology first, so by the time I got to choose, they were full 🙁
that is frustrating!
I took an AP psychology class in high school against my will and ended up falling in love. It became my minor in college and a majority of the books I read are non-fiction in the area of psych. Even though I don’t work in the field, I’m glad I chose to study something that interests me even if I never make a career out of it!
I also took a public speaking course as an elective and it was one of the best things I ever did!
i love psychology, too. it’s fascinating! one of my favorite electives.
I think that electives are necessary as they give you a chance to try something else. In some ways I think they should be required early on in college so that if a student wants to change their major they have the opportunity to do so.
I attended a pretty small communications/arts school so a lot of my “electives” were for my major. That’s one thing I wish I could have experienced more of during college.
I would have LOVED to take a nutrition elective… unfortunately most of mine were topics like geography, statistics or Russian politics. 😛 I was able to take a yoga class for half a semester though, and absolutely fell in love with it!
Although the majority of electives seem like a waste of time, I do think they help to create a well-rounded education. Plus, you end up with some random topic to talk about on an awkward first date or something. 🙂
I loveeed my computer graphics elective in high school, as well as working with the special education students- now I’m a special education teacher in the same school district that I grew up in! Great thought…
I am really glad I learned sign language, not only because I like to be able to converse with people while simultaneously confusing others and making them curious, but i do not think I learned very much in my media course where we basically watched a lot of MJ videos. I do love me some MJ, though.
I thinke electives are really important. Unfortunately, while I was in college, I had no clue what I wanted to do. Everything I thought I wanted to do is completely different now. I am thankful for all of the experiences that I had though.
French toast looks yummy! 🙂
hi julie! i am SUCH a huge follower of your blog and really really love it. im a freshman in college right now studying nutrition and dietetics, and we too have to take a bunch of electives! i really do think they are important- not only do they help you realize that theres more out there than just your major that you might be interested it, you also get to meet a really diverse group of people! also on a side note, what kind of bread did you use for your french toast? 🙂 thanks SO much for keeping up with such an amazing, inspiring blog!
honey wheat!
when i lived in australia i would make myself french toast 2-3 times a week. i loved it! haven’t had it in forever!
You always have the yummiest-looking breakfasts! You make the rest of us stay-at-homers look bad! 🙂
I was POSITIVE I wanted to major in History, and focus on American history. Our university had a language requirement. On a whim, I signed up for Russian. I loved it, and now have a master’s in Russian Studies, have lived in Russia twice, and am currently pursuing a PhD in Russian History.
On the other hand, I really do think it was absurd I was also required to take a Conceptual Physics class.
They were called General Liberal Requirements for us but same idea, I was annoyed at the time, but understand now their importance. They create a well rounded education and also a backup/opening to other careers if necessary.
My favorite elective was History of Jazz – I now love Jazz music because of that class! I really hated the science classes we had to take, I took geography!
I saved all of my electives for my senior year as well. My last semester i took golf and tennis, the class was so much fun…but the finals were SO HARD!!
Probably because I was too busy goofing around playing the sport instead of paying attention!
We had this thing called Winter Term in January, where you took an “educations trip” or mission trip type thing off campus, or stayed on campus and only took one class—a fun elective—if you were a freshman. I took a Jane Austen class. It was awesome! They also offered poker. 😉
At my college, we had program of electives we had to take (2 science, 2 social science, 2 humanities/arts, 1 cultural diversity, 1 international perspective). I think it’s extremely important to take as many electives as possible – I think people forget there is more to learn during college about life than just about what you’ll be doing for a ‘a living’. Unfortunately, I would actually have liked to take more electives, but my major (clinical laboratory science) crammed so many courses in years 2-4 that I didn’t have time for anything beyond the required ones. Actually, I don’t think I was really able to take enough electives to help me decide what to major in. I had come from high school set on a career in healthcare (at the time, med school was my plan, but that changed) and I think ignored some other courses I may have really enjoyed. I plan to go back (I graduated in 2004) to school to further my education ASAP – it may involve just taking courses that I feel I missed out on, but maybe graduate school for a change in career, as well. You’re never to old for an education or to change careers! 🙂
I felt the same way at first but then I realized electives were the only classes that come in handy for instant use in day-to-day (non career) life! I took nutrition, tennis, a law class, web design, and some history classes, and I gotta say those things stayed with me wayyy longer than finance ratios from my degree!! 😉
oh how i WISH i would’ve taken a web design class!
I took a ton of electives because I needed 150 credits to get two degrees. Highlights of my elective courses? Human sexuality (hilarious) and interpretive dance. Interpretive dance was such a mess. We had pretend to be all kinds of weird things like boats, balls, rivers, etc. Though I did get to do a dance to Michael Jackson once.
I also took one elective during grad school. It was the Musical History of Miami…and we started every class with a conga drum circle where we had to “speak through the drum”. Super weird.
interpretive dance!? awesome. just, awesome.
College electives are so important! When I was in undergrad, I used electives to figure out my minor – which I ended up changing multiple times. Now that I’m a career counselor on a college campus, I often encourage students to take electives in content areas that they are interested in to help figure out a major or minor. I think electives can also be used for a fun factor in order to balance out the stress and demands of major/minor intensive classes. One of my favorite electives was a Mass Media & Pop Culture class (where I became addicted to Harry Potter!). Even though it counted for my major…it fulfilled an “elective” requirement. 🙂
Loyola is really big with students having electives to give them a well-rounded education. In fact, it is built into the requirements for graduation. You need to take so many philosophy courses, science courses, etc regardless of your major. I think it’s a good idea. However, I am in a program that allowed me to double dip in a lot (and finish them all in two semesters!) so I don’t know how I’d feel if I was like some students who have to scramble to satisfy the requirements.
At Cornell, there was not only elective requirements but also gym class requirements. I took intermediate horseback riding. It was great. There was so many amazing options though, everything from ‘walking the gorges’ to spelunking (where the class would go for a week during winter break!).
I was required to take an honors class each semester of undergrad for this program I was in, and I decided to take Nutrition my senior year. Man! I wish I had taken it sooner because I probably would have changed my major, too.
I was a Poli Sci major but ended up taking so many film classes as electives & to fill gen ed requirements that I graduated with a Film & Media Studies degree, too.
My nutrition class (that I only took because I needed an online, upper division class during spring intersession) was one of the best classes I took in college. Softball and weight lifting (both of which I took to fill out hours in semesters with reading and research-intensive classes) were great, too, It was nice to have the variety — though I was surprised when we had to buy a book (and actually read it!) for softball.
I COMPLETELY AGREE!!!! In high school I took MANY ELECTIVES, however the most beneficial electives I took where my Agriculture courses. I had the opportunity to actively participate in the National FFA Organization and was able to develop my leadership, communication, and organizational skills and develop a love and passion for the world’s most important industry (people have to eat). I am now a senior at Western Kentucky University completing my major in Agriculture Education. I will begin my student teaching in January, doing a portion here in Kentucky, and a portion in Barcelona, Spain and hope to have the opportunity to do a short term study of agriculture in another country. If it wasn’t for my agriculture courses in high school I would have never had the life experiences that I have had thus far and I am extremely grateful for what I have been able to do. I’ve been to California to work on Rose Bowl Parade floats and been able to explore Scotland, through my collegiate agriculture program. I owe my experiences to my elective classes and hope as an agriculture educator that I can provide my students with the outlets to take advantage of similar opportunities. I also feel that when exploring healthy eating, I have different appreciation for healthy food choices and knowing where my food comes from and the labor that goes in to producing quality food. Electives are what keep students interested and can provide something different than general core content classes.
I went to a liberal arts school, so electives were pretty much half of your major program. I am interested in a gazillion subjects so I loved it! I ended up switching my career track from Pre-Med to Environmental Science/Geography after “discovering” that geography was the subject that covered the environmental and global issues I’m passionate about. But despite being a science nerd, my favorite class from college was in art history (18th century European Painting)! Since almost no 18 year old knows what they want to “do” with their life, I think electives are really important to give you a well-rounded experience and teach you to be functional in the real world.