Whether I’m making small talk at the grocery store, sitting at a family dinner, or introducing myself to any new adult I come in contact with, one thing is always the same.

After all of the polite formalities are over, I get hit with this:

“So…what are you going to do with that major?”

To be clear, I am majoring in communication. A major, might I add, that can result in multiple different job opportunities, spanning across a large number of different specialties. Communication skills are now reaching the number one spot for what employers look for in an applicant.

But despite that, I could be majoring in English, Sociology, Astronomy, History, Psychology, or anything else for that matter, and adults would still ask the same question.

Don’t get me wrong--I love to talk about college and my studies, and I would love to seriously talk about what I’m going to do with my major, but that is not the case here.

Instead, I find myself being asked this question, dripped with condescension and disdain, and really I don’t even know why.

Is it because I am not majoring in the hard sciences? Is it because I don’t want to be an engineer or a doctor? Is it because you know a girl who knows a guy who knows another guy that failed to get a job with his communication major? Please, enlighten me.

I do believe that there are people who are genuinely curious about what we college students are going to do with our majors, but it seems like it is becoming more and more rare to find those people.

This question has become so frequently asked that I find myself giving one of two automatic answers.

If I’m really not in the mood, I fake a smile and a small laugh and say, “That is a good question! I’ll have to get back to you on that!" and then politely excuse myself to go into any other room.

But sometimes, I slip up and decide to tell people what I actually want to do with my communication major.

And then I remember why I always excused myself before I could answer.

The people that are asking college students this question have already got it wrapped up in their minds why it is a “bad” or “useless” major. They don’t really want to hear what you have to say after they ask you.

Once you respond, you give them a bright, big opening into why you shouldn’t want to do that job, or how you will never get a job in that field, or, better yet, the one I encountered this year:

“You know robots are going to be taking over that work field in 20 years.”

I’m just really sick of it. Sick of having to justify why I am majoring in what I am, when it is my personal decision to study what I love and pursue a job in something that I truly believe will make me the happiest I can be.

I don’t want to have to listen to my friends get harassed by Generation X every time they openly discuss their philosophy, art, music, or psychology majors. I don’t want to be major-shamed.

Instead, adults should be encouraging us, standing by our sides despite how they feel about a certain major because it is not their lives or their decisions to make. They had their chances to study what they wanted, and now it is up to us, the millennials, to start picking our own paths in life.

There is a job out there for everyone. Plus, what’s the fun in life if you aren’t out there pursuing what you love?