u/reyaryder

I don't know so much, I am a college freshman but hoping to learn more and plan out a path. I'm very interested in the mind-body connection, specifically interested in going into sleep psychology/medicine, gut health, or female health, specifically hormonal and reproductive health. Unsure what specific careers could be, but interested to learn more.

Right now, I am thinking to study psychology + biology (double major). My school does not have a designated premed track. I also could do psych + neuroscience, or psych + data science, or another combination of those.

I know med school is a long and expensive process thereafter. Looking for any words of wisdom, advice, or "wish I knews" from people currently pursuing careers with the interests I listed (I know they are quite broad). Some questions...

1. What is your job/what are you studying to be, and what does your day look like?
2. Is there anything you wish you did in undergrad (summer experiences, school year) that would have helped you along the way?

Thanks so much for the advice!

Curious given talk about “loneliness epidemic” in Gen Z. How many of you guys have supportive friend groups/families/communities to rely on?

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I go to a non traditional undergrad to save money (commuter school, most ppl of non traditional ages, not much student/campus life, in the city) and eventually plan on going to grad school where I have been saving up for.

I’m feel that I’m missing out on a lot of “quintessential” college kid experiences- namely sports teams (I’m athletic and used to be on a competitive sports team in high school, literally do not have that here), established clubs, parties, school spirit, etc.

Eventually I want to go to grad school, and in my head I’ve been thinking I could get some scholarships to go to a place with a nice campus, live close, and involve myself in student life like that. But the more I think of it I feel a lot of these experiences might just be undergrad. I keep feeling like I want to transfer and apply for scholarships and go to a school with those things that I feel like I’m missing out on. Is it worth it?

Unfortunately I am already old due to gap years so would be starting as 22 year old sophomore (too late to transfer this year).

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I want my girls to have a healthy view of food, but diet culture and media is so widespread these days. Also I notice a lot of parents want this for their kids but might not necessarily have it themselves.

I have struggled with binge eating/restriction in the past, specifically stress eating, which I believe I mostly got from my dad, however both of my parents tended to use food (give me cookies, candy, etc.) as a way of “dealing with” hard emotions.

There’s a few archetypes that I notice:

1. Kids whose parents were nuts about healthy food, then perhaps grow up to overindulge in the foods they were restricted from, or see foods as good/bad, lots of food /calorie guilt and stress.

2. Kids whose parents were more like mine, lenient and didn’t restrict much, but almost encouraged sweets to an unhealthy extent. If we wanted it, they were like, you’re young! Eat! Or would see nothing wrong with soothing a bad day with ice cream. For me this has led to a kind of messed up relation with food, I use food to self-soothe and have a hard time controlling myself. I also have a hard time saying out loud that some foods are simply unehalthy. I never want to tell people (including myself) they eat “too much” of anything, especially sugar, because I feel like these comments are toxic. But sometimes, this is simply true.

3. Kids whose parents always made them finish the plate, also leading to kids not being able to understand their hunger/fullness cues.

I want to hear from people who grew up with a genuinely healthy view of food. Not food-obsessed, secretly binging or feeling guilty after eating past hunger. What did your parents do to get you there?

Title. I’m NAT, but just wondering what you would do if a client said something that triggered a response of some sort in you, pointed out an insecurity, yelled at you (e.g., “you’re not even doing your job!” / “How could you ever understand? You’re [insert demographics or presumed experiences]” etc.). Do you just stay silent?

I’m in college now and thinking about which major to pursue. I am fortunate to have grown up with parents who worked hard in jobs they don’t necessarily love but pay well in order to live in a nice district where I can get good education and also pay for my tuition.

My passion career is teaching. I really like it and think I would be good at it. However, parents keep warning about the low salaries. I’m sure they would prefer I pursue a degree which would help me land a job equal to, or a step up from them. As a teacher I probably would barely be making half as much as my mom at my best.

I’m okay with living more of a frugal life than my parents, but my main concern is I wouldn’t be able to afford giving my kids luxuries I’m extremely grateful for that I grew up with (great public schools in a high-tax town, paid college, etc.).

Question: Title. If so, how has this changed the way you live, and the opportunities you can provide your kids/family vs. what you had?

Neither of my parents came from wealth and both struggled to get out of it and did a great job climbing the corporate ladder and making a life for themselves and for me. I feel a bit of responsibility to continue on and utilize the resources they have given me in order to go into a high paying career and do the same for my kids.

TL;DR: I want to enter a career where I would make significantly less than my parents, and I am wondering how this might affect my kids.

EDIT: This is from their college experience observations where most people pursuing BEd are white and middle class. I write this to start an interesting conversation & collect other observations, not a heated debate.

EDIT 2: I see and respect a lot of you have come from low income backgrounds and become teachers. I also believe that a lot of work still has to be done to lower the barriers into the industry. Thanks all, for your thoughts!

Their rationale:

1. You have to go to college (i.e., pay lots of money, grad school, etc.) for a job that might (prob won't) not get you much money in return
2. Since you take the above risk, you probably have some sort of cushion to fall back onto
3. Not everyone has the "privilege" of pursuing a "passion career" (people who need money and a job will more likely pursue a technical career with higher returns), and teaching is a "passion career" for most, fallback career for some who didn't make it to their high-paying other career

This makes me wonder about things like:

1. Teaching in the US is predominantly and disproportionately white - does this have anything to do with it? Why does it seem teaching is not a desirable career for many POC (observation, not real data)?
2. At the uni I go to, most of the kids from less wealthy backgrounds (mostly POC) are indeed busting their asses for engineering/computer science/data science etc. degrees (again observation, not real data)

Context: I'm Asian coming from an upper middle class background. I am passionate about teaching. I also worry about the financial aspect. My parents both worked hard in jobs they are not necessarily passionate about but pay well in order to build wealth so they could do things like pay for my college tuition and to live in a district with good education, something I am endlessly grateful for. I worry that I might not be able to offer the same for my children if I pursue teaching.

Yes, I know I will need grad school. Yes, I love studying psychology. I want to be a teacher, social worker, clinical psychologist, or something of the sort. But I also know many niche jobs I might not know about could exist in these fields, and I want to know other skills I might think about gaining during undergrad to make my degree more technical, so that when I graduate I might have some skills to fall back on. I’m thinking:
- double major or minor in data science
- double major or minor in AI
- double major or minor in biology (also not very technical)
- minor in neuroscience (most interesting to me, unfortunately this is also not super “technical”)

The issue of the first 2 options is that I am deeply uninterested. Would it be worth it to push through?

CONTEXT:
- Just finished first year (we do all general studies year 1), choosing courses for second year

TL;DR - psych is the most interesting major for me, but I fear not being employable. What skills should I learn to combat this?

College student (20F) home during the summer, looking to make some extra money. I absolutely love bikes, and want to learn more. Thought about asking my local shop if they have any job availability. The thing is…
- No technical/mechanical experience (but I can learn)
- Available full time for the first 5 weeks, then only weekends for the rest of the summer (but for the weekends bit, will be working 50h during the workweek so I don’t know if I will have capacity to sacrifice both weekend days)

On the other side..
- I’m a quick learner, dedicated, eager to help people
- Female cyclist interested in getting more girls (especially young girls) into the sport. I find it’s pretty rare to have a girl that can help you at a bike store, and this would personally have helped me a lot when I first started my journey.

Given all this, is it worth to inquire about a job? If you work at a bike shop, how might you receive this?

Entering 2nd year of college and my friend has asked to be my roommate.

Pros:

- We have the same sleeping schedule

- Generally same levels of cleanliness

- They are a considerate person

- We are both light sleepers, so at the very least we would have this level of consideration for each other

Cons:

- The way our friendship dynamic unfolded, a few months this year I found myself over-idolizing them, making things like confrontations and pushing back on their wishes even when they collided with my own hard.

- I believe they are much more open to borrowing/lending stuff so I would have to be more open about my own personal boundaries

- I’ve heard roomming with friends is not a good idea, and I’ve voiced this, but they have expressed full confidence in our ability to be roommates

If I don’t decide to room with them, I will go random and risk a potentially worse situation (to their logic at least) because everyone “good” has been chosen. But I also think it would be an opportunity to make a new friend… but yes, as a light sleeper, it could go terribly wrong. What would you do?

Entering 2nd year of college and my friend has asked to be my roommate.

Pros:

- We have the same sleeping schedule

- Generally same levels of cleanliness

- They are a considerate person

- We are both light sleepers, so at the very least we would have this level of consideration for each other

Cons:

- The way our friendship dynamic unfolded, a few months this year I found myself over-idolizing them, making things like confrontations and pushing back on their wishes even when they collided with my own hard.

- I believe they are much more open to borrowing/lending stuff so I would have to be more open about my own personal boundaries

- I’ve heard roomming with friends is not a good idea, and I’ve voiced this, but they have expressed full confidence in our ability to be roommates

If I don’t decide to room with them, I will go random and risk a potentially worse situation (to their logic at least) because everyone “good” has been chosen. But I also think it would be an opportunity to make a new friend… but yes, as a light sleeper, it could go terribly wrong. What would you do?