Dear Anyone Afraid To Pick Their Dream Major,

I was like you once. A little over a year ago, I was sitting in the news studio of my high school when I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life reporting the news. Each night my family and I watched the news together and I can honestly say that I looked up to many reporters, including David Muir. However, I had spent the first 18 years of my life being told that a career in the media industry was not realistic. When I was a child I wanted to be a singer. That was immediately shut down, along with the dreams of acting and modeling that followed. My family always told me that working in the media industry was a waste of my intelligence; however, I had to realize that this was my future, not anyone else’s. I was scared people would laugh when the learned I wouldn’t be enrolling in a STEM program, but now, here I am at the end of my first year as a Television-Radio Major at Ithaca College.

Trust me, picking a field that isn’t typically considered “academic” has its down sides. You will encounter many people who look down upon you and question your intelligence. People have jokingly referred to my classes as “finger painting lessons,” and many have asked if I chose this path because I didn’t have the brains to study math or science. None of this is true. First of all, I, much like you, am a very intelligent individual. I graduated high school in the top portion of my class with above a 4.0 GPA, and I refuse to let my brainpower be judged by the major I have chosen. Secondly, my courses are just as difficult, if not more challenging than the courses in the STEM Fields. I had to be trained on many different type of camera and production equipment as well as multiple types of editing software, and that’s just the beginning. It is important to remember that each field is challenging in its own way. Who cares if your homework is doing three hours of math equations or editing six hours of footage that you produced and shot? At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is knowing that you will look back on your life when you are eighty and love every second of it.

So here I am, looking back on my first year of college, and I can assure you that there is no major I would rather be in. I know that it is going to be a difficult path, but I am not afraid. I encourage you to feel the same. If your dream is baking cakes, or performing on Broadway, learn the trade. Do not let the judgments of others influence your dreams, because loving what you do is so much more important that fitting in. I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,