By Karen Gavis/managing editor

College students may think they know why they have chosen a particular major. But do they really?

Recently, someone asked me, sort of on the fly, why exactly I do what I do, which is write.

“Because that’s what I love to do,” I said.

More than likely, many students would have a similar reply about their chosen field of study. But, given ample time for consideration, the root of the matter may go a little deeper than that.

As a child, I lived for some time with my grandparents, neither of whom could read or write.

There was a reason for it. Being one of the oldest children in a very large family, my grandmother had to stop attending school at a young age to care for her younger siblings while both her parents worked. This was not uncommon among agricultural families of that time.

I went everywhere my grandmother went and first became aware of her inability to read or write when I tagged along with her to the store one day and watched her cash a check. The man behind the counter turned the check over, and I watched as my grandmother made an X on the back of it.

Being young, I’m not sure if I could actually read, but I knew enough about the alphabet to know my grandmother’s name was not X.

For reasons unknown to me at the time, I was angered. And I wonder still today if the man gave my grandmother the correct amount of money she was due.

While that certainly is not the most prestigious and desirable of circumstances to prompt people into dedicating part of their lives to something — that’s my answer.

As students, perhaps we should examine our choices a little more closely. Maybe there’s more to why we do what we do than we initially thought.

And if anyone were to inquire about our motives someday, we would be prepared with a final answer, one that works for us.