Have you ever felt like when you tell someone your major they just look at you and ask confusedly "What do you want to do with that?" or worse, "Why do you want to do that?" I was so afraid of this reaction that up until I was applying for college, I would tell people that I didn't know what I wanted to study instead of listing off the different ideas that I was interested in. I didn't want people to judge me based on what I wanted to do with my life.
But when I finally picked a major, I was all in and very vocal that this was my major, and I wouldn't listen to anything anybody said about it. And then I switched majors from Spanish Education to just Spanish. It wasn't that I didn't want to teach, it was that I preferred the options that the Spanish department could give me over those that the College of Education could. Even though I was no longer at the Education College, I still kept telling people that my major was Spanish Education, because I didn't want to have to explain my life plan to every new person I met. Especially because even sometimes when I say Spanish Education, people still ask me what I plan on doing with my degree. I know what I want to do with my life, and I have a plan of how to get there, even if my major doesn't directly reflect that.
What I'm doing with my life isn't your problem. Your opinion about what I should do with my life isn't going to change my future. I am extremely passionate about teaching and about the Spanish language and culture. I recognize that teaching isn't the most profitable career, but if I'm doing what I love, why would I care about how much money I'm making? There's more to life than pleasing others, like doing what you love.
Why is it that we always judge people for their life choices? There's judgment if you don't go to college, and when you do decide to go to college, there's judgment about where you go and what you're studying. I'll admit that I'm also very quick to judge, but I when I ask what someone's plan is after they tell me their degree, it's not to judge; I'm legitimately interested in their career goals. It's not up to you to worry about what someone else's career path is; it should be their choice to share and not something that you force them to do regularly. I have a spiel memorized with all of the major points of my college plan because I get asked the same three questions when I tell people my major.
College is hard enough without the judgment and doubts of others about your degree choices. Even if you think that there is a better major for someone, it's not fair to them to voice that, no matter how close you are with them. A part of college is self-discovery, and your major is a large part of that. I think that everyone just needs to take a step back and really think about how your questions about college come across and worry less about what other people are doing with their lives.