Fashion is my chosen religion. Chanel is my God and Karl Lagerfeld is my born Savior. I read and study the scriptures of Vogue. I pray that my fashion advice may be valued and appreciated, that one day, I could be one of the greats. I have seen The Devil Wears Prada over 100 times and every season of Project Runway. Fashion is my one true love, the thing that will always be there for me, the thing I can always depend on. It is what I eat. It is what I breathe. It is what I live.

My major is important. My major is valuable. It is not a bullshit major. Usually, when I tell people what I am a fashion major, they respond with a simple answer: “Oh”. They usually follow up with “I didn’t even know our school has a fashion program”, and “what do you expect to do with that”? I can fully understand this confusion. Like all forms of art, fashion is very cutthroat. It involves many years of working shitty hours at not the best pay, working your ass off to slowly climb the steep ladder.

“Oh, that sounds great, an easy major” is the second most common response. I mean, fashion is not engineering or pre-med, but it is difficult in different ways. Fashion challenges your inner creativity; it pushes you to think in abstract ways. It's subjective manner leaves some confused on the true meaning. In reality, it isn’t easier; it’s just different.

All I wish for is, not just respect, but appreciation for the arts, for people who pursue theatre, art, fashion, writing and anything in between. There is no such thing as an “easy” major in college, and people should see the difficulty in EVERY major. Because, college is hard, and we don’t need people telling us we can’t do it. So, follow what you love, no matter how “impractical” or “safe”, as long as you are happy doing so.