“So what’s your major?”
If there’s anything the education system has taught me, other than the obvious and mandatory course work, it’s that there’s an unspoken hierarchy when it comes to career paths. With every major comes a label and every student, from as young as middle schoolers all the way to college students, knows where their desired major falls on the list of priorities – there’s already a universal understanding of what others expect. It becomes a competition, a race with no real finish line. Suddenly what you choose to study turns into more than what interests you, which is what it’s supposed to be about. Inquiries about your future feel like loaded questions with no right answers. They feel personal and judgemental, and unfortunately, most of the time they are. Especially if what you’ve chosen to pursue doesn’t exactly fall under what’s socially acceptable.
We’ve created a stigma that favors certain majors over others. Medicine over communications. Engineering over literature. Business over theatre. Law over art. There’s a crystal clear division between majors, usually based on outdated and condescending stereotypes. As a journalism major myself, I’ve definitely been at the receiving end of passive-aggressive comments regarding my career choice. There are constantly assumptions being made; our workload is less, our classes aren’t as hard, our future is less bright. Because for some reason, we’ve decided that our interests are directly correlated to our intelligence. The choice to not want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or an engineer is viewed as the inability to become one.
Students have begun to place too much emphasis on what others will think of their career choice. We’ve begun to let what’s conventional dictate what we choose to study. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to pick and choose which majors to value.
There is very little in this world we have total control over, but what we choose to do with our lives is one of them. Life’s too short to spend it doing something you’re not passionate about. Don’t get me wrong, if becoming a surgeon is what you’re passionate about, do it. Go to med school. If running a business is your calling in life, listen to it. But the same applies to those who want to be chefs, and writers, and artists. Choosing to pursue a certain subject isn’t a decision made lightly for anyone, and to think otherwise is unfair. There shouldn’t be a loss of respect for majors that aren’t what people generally perceive as successful careers. Regardless of the field, it hasn’t come easy. It doesn’t always mean doing six years of school. It doesn’t always mean taking six different science classes in one semester. It doesn’t always mean being a math whiz. Work is work. The efforts and sacrifices made by a liberal arts major are no less important than those made by a bio-med major. It’s wrong to devalue one person’s work because it doesn’t meet the standard society has set.
No degree is useless. No major is inferior. Because as long as it’s what you’ve chosen to do, and as long as you’ve put in work and dedication, no one can ever take that away from you.
