Why does no one ever talk about college minors? They’re just as important as majors, according to most people — yet everyone forgets they exist.

I was always taught to select a minor that compliments my major. So the marketing majors minor in business, the education majors minor in special ed, and the list goes on and on.

But who says?

Coming into college I was dead set on a writing major. All of my friends told me it was impractical, and to think I was making a hobby my profession that was naive in itself. To say the least, I’ve been more than successful in finding places to publish my work. Writing has given me endless joy but as my semesters went on and I declared my creative writing concentration my advisor began to bug me about a minor.

As a humanities student a lot of times it’s required. I don’t know whether that’s because our majors are less involved than other’s or they’re just trying to support multitasking or dabbling in other areas.

I love the idea of a minor. But people have such a wrong idea about it.

My advisor told me to take a class that I find interesting that has absolutely nothing to do with my major. The first thing that came to mind was psychology, maybe sociology. I had already taken AP psychology in high school and an intro sociology course. Both I thoroughly enjoyed.

But don’t forget, psychology has nothing to do with writing — what on earth will I do with that minor?

I’m just going to say it, minor’s don’t do shit. They’re probably somewhere between 15-25 credits and your employer will likely skip over whatever you minored in. Maybe it’ll be a conversation starter in your interview, that’s about it.

Coming into college I was dead set on minoring in journalism. I told myself it was going to be the most practical, the most likely to help me get a job. But as I saw friends of mine dropping the program and switching over to a writing major, bashing all the professors, classes, and the overall program I was completely turned off.

Why would I want to spend three years taking a few classes that I don’t even enjoy, for something that doesn’t even matter?

As my advisor said, take something fun, minor in women and genders studies, deaf studies, that language you always wanted to learn.

After three semesters of debating and avoiding telling my parents I declared a psychology minor. Because that’s where my passions lie.

I’m a huge mental health advocate and personality, cognition, attraction, and everything in between are so incredibly interesting to me. Why people do what they do. How more practical could that get?

Maybe my resume won’t be what people expect, maybe they’ll ask why I wasted twenty credits on Positive and Abnormal Psychology but I’ll just sit and smile back at them.

A minor is supposed to be your passions, your interests, the impractical, the classes you can’t convince your parents to make a major. Have a little fun, be different, but choose wisely.

A minor is important, but only in that it should be something you enjoy, not what “looks” good on a piece of paper.