My Future in Social Work

by Liesel Hauge

     When I was a senior in high school, adults would ask me one single question that would send a stab or terror into my heart: What are you majoring in? My answer would always be: I don’t know yet. The terror and pressure to figure out my life’s course before I graduated high school, or worse, entered college, was constant. I toured job fairs, talked to counselors, and took aptitude tests. Nothing stuck out to me.

     Then, one day I realized my passion for social justice. I wanted be the person who would help people who were down on their luck to change their lives, whether that meant working with alcoholics or abused children or the dying. With this in mind, I declared my major to be Social Work. Over the next several months, I reached out to as many professional social workers as I could, including my next door neighbor, friends’ parents, and volunteers at my high school. Their stories showed their massive dedication to their work, and the people they helped both inspired and intimidated me. One woman told me about one of her clients who she helped fight addiction who had relapsed and died the previous weekend. Another person told me about helping a family cope with the dementia of their grandmother. Neither of these testimonials was a happy story, but through these stories I learned about the struggles and dedication that it takes to be a social worker. These people embody the traits that I someday hope to demonstrate as well through my work serving others.

     As a freshman in college with two Intro to Social Work classes under my belt, I do not know if this is the major for me. However, I am ready to challenge myself, learn as much as I can, and push myself to see if I have what it takes to become a social worker.

Liesel Hauge is a student at the University of North Dakota.