"So what are you studying?" "What are your plans after college?" "What do you want to do with that?"

The go-to questions for all college student interrogators. The dreaded conversation starters for all millennials. The reasons many avoid visiting old friends. Why do we shrink from such inquiries? They're so innocent. So well-meaning and simple.

I cannot generalize my entire generation. I can only answer for myself.

What do you want to be? What do you want to do? How will you make money?

For me, these are all different questions. I know what I want my life to be about, I know what I care about and want to live for. But I don't know where I want to work. I haven't found a career choice where passion and practicality meet.

So when someone asks me my degree choice, I feel this wave of insecurity swell through me, a cloud of hesitancy roll overhead. I feel directionless in some ways. Because I resist the impression of being passed down an assembly line, I have to find my own process, and it's messy. This is hard to explain when an uncle wants a one sentence answer so they can begin to understand me.

I, a sophomore still "exploring majors," find comfort in the words of Bill Watterson:

"You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble."

I may not be funneling into a perfect degree tract yet.. My major may not be the most marketable.. My dad probably won't like this impractical article.. But I am finding that meaning does not come in the form of a certificate. Purpose doesn't hit after I shake the president's hand in cap and gown. My identity is not my degree.

Yours isn't either. So listen to Bill Watterson. Don't sell yourself out, or short. When someone asks you what your studying, pretend they care (they just might), and blow them away with your passion. Don't feel constricted by a one-word answer that categorizes you with the rest. Find purpose in this vague, strange experience called college, rather than just looking ahead.

Be satisfied with this meantime, "I think you'll be happier for the trouble."