College is the most amazing, beautiful, and horrifying experience. You choose what thing you want to study, at least for four years, which can determine what you get a job in and how much money you'll be making. Usually, people major in one of two groups of majors: humanities or sciences. Most of the time, people choose their major based on their passion and what they want to devote their lives to. This is especially true, at least in my experience, for humanities majors. Unfortunately, humanities majors are the butts of a lot of jokes, and are submitted to a lot of passive aggressive and downright insulting comments about what we chose to major in.
Here, without further adieu, is a small collection of things that I wish the science majors in the world understood. (Keep in mind that this applies to my experience, and no, it doesn't apply to all science majors.)
1. We aren't stupid.
No, a lot of us won't design prosthetics or build bridges. Nor will we ever develop vaccines. But just because we chose not to major in math or science, whether out of interest or the fact that we feel that math and science aren't our strengths, it doesn't mean we're stupid. According to multiple studies, humanities majors rank right up there with science majors, being the third most intelligent discipline (right behind biological sciences and engineering).
2. Our majors aren't easy.
A lot of humanities majors, especially my major (history), don't have a lot tests. We don't have chem labs or bio labs. Obviously, that means that our majors aren't stressful or difficult, right? Yeah, no. In my time as a history major, I've realized that the six page papers that I thought were going to kill me in high school are WEAK. Research papers are our lives, and history professors have a tendency to be super nit-picky. Plus, historical accuracy is the most important thing, so we spend hours pouring over Google and our books.
3. Our majors aren't useless.
Spoiler alert: doctors and engineers are not the only people that we need in the world. Businesspeople, politicians, lawyers, therapists, professors... These people are all among the hundreds of different professions you can get with a humanities major. Unless you plan on never using non-science based resources, you should at least try to respect our majors as something that isn't useless.
4. How much money we make is none of your business.
"How are you going to survive on that salary?" "Good luck making money with that." Guess what? You're not going to be living on my salary, paying my student debt, or paying for my classes. How much money I will make in the future is none of your business, and how much money you'll make is none of my business. Plus, a lot of careers in humanities pay plenty of money; lawyers, political scientists, and professors, for example, are paid in the $100,000s.
5. We love what we study and study what we love.
We love what we study, just like you love what you study. I love history, despite all the reading, writing, research, and negative comments. I don't plan on studying something I don't love to satisfy you, nor do I plan on studying something I don't love to get a well-paying job that I hate.
Before you make one of these snide comments against your humanities major friend, or avoid calling them smart, remember these things. A good rule of thumb is that, if you can't do what a humanities major is doing, you shouldn't be making fun of them.
