I am senior in my last semester of college with a Biology major and an Archaeology minor. Recently I have been hit with some pretty bad mental and physical health issues that have been impacting my life pretty severely. I have been in and out of doctor and specialist offices a lot without much hope for improvement. It’s not quite debilitating; I have been able to consistently make it to most of my classes, although my work ethic has been impacted and my grades are suffering. The last class I have to take for my minor is a seminar class that is really stressful for me. The class involves a project that requires considerable time and work outside of class in a lab to complete. The class itself is also very long and causes me to have panic attacks in anticipation of it. I started the Archaeology minor on a whim when I realized that I generally enjoyed the material and working out in the field, but it is just out of personal interest. Now I am not sure it is even worth the stress that I am feeling over this particular class. If I drop the class, I wouldn’t graduate with my minor which I would be sad about. Even worse, my parents would probably be pretty disappointed that I couldn’t tough it out for the last six weeks of the semester. But I just can’t stop the anxiety over it and just want this incredible weight lifted off of me so that I can breathe again. Is it worth it to keep pushing myself through this?
As long as you have enough credits to graduate on time, I say prioritize your health and drop the course, even if it means losing the minor.
I’ve sent you a private message about my own college experience. Maybe it will help.
How is your relationship with the prof? If they’d be willing to give you an incomplete and let you complete the project over the summer, is that something you’d want to do?
Otherwise I’d agree with the above: prioritize your health (and your performance in your other classes) and drop the class. No sense being tyrannized by something you were doing out of interest and enjoyment in the first place.
Archaeology seems to me to have no connection to biology, so I would guess that it doesn’t factor into your career plans. If that is the case, dropping it would seem the right thing to do.
Also, what are your plans for your biology degree? People usually go on to a masters in something as there isn’t really a job called “biology”. I don’t know that the minor will help you with that, but it can certainly hurt if it negatively affects your pursuit of your major.