“Oh, interesting, what are you going to do with that?” or “Good thing McDonald's is always hiring and it’s easy to ask, “Do you want fries with that?"

That’s the response typically associated with someone when they ask my major: Philosophy with a minor in International Affairs. The judgment shines in their eyes as they make me uncomfortable as they ponder a major foreign to them. Impractical degree and a waste of money is what I assume they are saying in their heads if they haven’t already spoken a line like the ones mentioned.

I then quickly feel the need to jump to defend and explain my thought process and my future desires to be a lawyer. It usually goes like this, “Oh I’m a philosophy major with the hopes of minoring in international affairs. I really want to go to law school and work on an ethics committee at a hospital,” and they respond with “Oh that sounds nice.”

It's challenging for me sometimes to not be in a typical major like nursing, education, engineering but then I remember someone has to go out on a whim and be that person willing to take a chance and not do the expected job.

Coming into this school year, as a first-year student, I was apprehensive studying in a major that only represented a few students out of the entire student body at the University of Maine. Orientation for me was my deciding moment that this wasn’t high school anymore and it didn’t matter what anyone thought. I was in the driver’s seat, and I could decide where my future was going. My academic advisor meeting during orientation was amazing, as I was the only student in my major who showed up to the session. We had a great conversation about my future regarding my hopes and aspirations.

It occurred to me this small tight-knit community was the support system I now had and that I had great free academic range when it came to how I wanted to approach my major.

College and my major has taught me to have confidence and own who I want to be. I confess that at the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t tell people my major. I would honestly lie and say I haven’t declared one or I would say I was an international affair major because that seemed like a major society could more easily accept.

It’s ok if people don’t understand or see the path you’re on. All that matters is that your happy and know what you want to do with your education. Criticism and ridicule are all around you in the world we live in and it will always be around.

Remember to stay true to yourself and always ask yourself at the end of the day, what’s going to make you happy now and in the future. Chances are if you do your passion and see you end goal like me, you’re going to be happier in life and not wake up in your forties hating your job and wondering why you didn’t choose something you liked when in college.