In a predominantly scientific university, when people ask me what my major is, they usually cringe at the answer. I'm an English major in a sea of engineering and pre-health care majors.
I get asked a lot of questions once people find out what my major is, like: "How are you going to make any money with that?" or "What are you going to do with your future?" But my favorite question by far is when people ask me why, as if there's no possible reason why I could ever want to be an English major.
Well, the answer is pretty simple, and I really don't hesitate to answer at all: it's because I want to engage in something that I actually like.
Could I major in chemistry or biology and make a shit-ton of money? Sure. But do I want to? Absolutely not.
I have zero interest in sitting in huge lecture halls with hundreds of other students learning monotonous biological processes or the derivatives of complicated functions. What I do have an interest in, however, is culture, words, music, and art.
People occasionally tell me that I'm probably wasting a lot of money by majoring in humanities, but what I think would be a waste would be taking a bunch of classes and investing money (and more importantly, time), into doing something that I hate.
I love going into an English or Philosophy class because the students and professors are actually interested in what I have to say. The great thing about humanities classes is that they're discussion based. Not only do you get to learn from the professors, often times they express that they want to learn from you, too. The discussions that I have in my classes don't only make me learn more about the world around me, but they make me learn more about myself as a person. I've discovered more about myself in a room debating with people I have nothing in common with than in any other situation I've ever encountered. Also, unlike a lot of other people, I love writing papers. I love reading. I love seeing how other people have expressed themselves, and I love finding the beauty in the work of all of the generations of writers and artists who have come before me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the people who have dreamed of science all their lives, waiting to make world-changing discoveries or become their city's next best doctor. We need those people. But those people make it to those points in their lives and careers because they love what they do, too. Their lives are also predicated on the fact that they are following something that they love the same exact way I am.
It's simple—I do what I do because I love it, and I think that if everyone developed the same attitude, they'd be a lot happier. Someone once told me, "Go find your passion, and you'll never work a day in your life." I'm fine with living like that, because even if I make just enough money to get by, I'll have what I really need—something to make my life feel colorful and to make my heart feel full.
