Everyone who has attended school knows that you are constantly asked what your aspirations are for your career in the future. When you’re little, teachers and family periodically ask what you want to be when you grow up. Your response at the time was probably “veterinarian” or “astronaut.” By the time you reach middle school, you’re given evaluations that try to determine what aspects you are interested in. When you’re in high school, you’re expected to know what you will be going to college for, and therefore, working at for the rest of your life. Finally, after 13 long years of education, you have to start applying to colleges. You are expected to know exactly what major you want going in, and every application asks for it. If you start college as “undecided,” it's frowned upon, exploration is put on the back burner, and switching majors is expensive and time-consuming.
At 18-years-old, how are you supposed to know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life? Also, with the ever-changing economy and job market, how are you expected to know where job opportunities will be when you graduate? Should you go to college? Should you go into the army? Should you start learning a trade? College is an exciting time, but the stress outweighs the anticipated experience. Finally, you settle on going off to college, and picking a major that sounds interesting, and one you hope to be successful in. Now when you are nagged by friends and adults, you have an answer to blurt out at them, but this doesn’t seem to be enough for some people.
Picking the degree you want to major in is a big decision, and there is obviously a lot of thought that goes into it. I have come to notice that my fellow college-aged peers are sometimes hesitant to talk about what they are majoring in, or what their career goals are with fear that they will be judged by their decisions. This saddens me because I know first-hand how hard it is to decide, and when I finally did, I was very excited to tell everyone I know what I wanted to do.
There seems to be a lot of “major shaming” that students receive when in college. Someone asks you “What are you majoring in,” and if they don’t like your response, you get an “Oh” as a reaction. It seems as though if you are not interested in becoming a doctor, lawyer or astrophysicist, you are looked at as “less than.” I am here to tell you that that is not the case.
If you are excited and interested in something, go for it with all your heart. Don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t a good idea, or that you won’t find jobs when you get out of school. If you are passionate enough, and you have the drive, you’ll make it work. So go ahead, major in teaching, or philosophy, or neuroscience or accounting. Do whatever feels like the right fit to you because that’s all that will matter in the end.
Sincerely,
A marketing major
