I need advice and opinions on a life- and career-changing decision, please.

I know this is long, so please bear with me..

So, I left my home state of CA about 10 years ago for a relationship across the country that was disastrous in many ways. Once I left, I found it financially impossible to move back, and everything in my life since has been geared toward getting back to the west coast. I just feel like a fish out of water and am especially unhappy these past 5 years (living in Roanoke and Morgantown).

My goal has been to get that degree, get out of the unskilled labor set, and find something better paying either on the west coast or with an eye to save enough money to get back there.

I’ve always thought I’d be a biologist and I really feel like I have a scientist’s brain. I’m a senior in a wildlife biology program at WVU. However, I find the school and program to be frustrating and unpleasant and even with this degree, I don’t envision myself doing bachelor-level work in this field.

An opportunity has arisen, thanks to my mom coordinating/networking with family members and offering to help, to move back to the Bay Area. I’m torn because on many levels, it seems perfect and I really would give just about anything for a chance like this. On the other side of the coin, I would have to give up my degree in biology and instead take a degree in Liberal Studies with the goal of becoming a teacher.

I can definitely imagine myself as a teacher and I think I’d be good at it. I’m just not sure whether giving up my current degree is a good idea. Will I put myself at a disadvantage later, if I have a bachelors in Liberal Studies, as opposed to biology? I’m going to have a bunch of classes related to my current major that won’t count for anything, but I’m not sure whether future employers will ever look at my transcript to see my educational accomplishments.

I am miserable here and my disdain for the university and most of its student body, along with a really crappy job and not much of a friend or dating pool, definitely affects my school performance. I was always a 3.2+ girl, since attending WVU, my GPA is something like 2.9. So staying may not be doing me any favors, either, either mentally or educationally.

My heart says go to CA, but my head is unsure. It feels kind of like a loss of identity in a way. Advice? Thoughts?