Being a currently enrolled undergraduate student, I am surrounded by premed, business, and pre-law students. It was my first class of my freshman year. We were going around the room proclaiming our majors and minors. Economics. Mathematics. Psychology. Criminal Justice. Minor in computer science. Then it came to me.

Film production with a minor in dance. The professor smiled at everyone's major but mine. One girl even snickered. When we broke up into groups to get to know each other, one student turned towards me and said, "So... film, huh? How do you plan on getting a job?"

I didn't realize that this question would follow me everywhere throughout my college career. In class, with my academic adviser, boyfriends' parents, even at parties and bars. The next four years would consist of answering the same questions over and over again, brushing and laughing it off. How do I plan on getting a job? What do I want to do with my major?

Yes, there are unemployed artists. There are also unemployed psychologists and lawyers as well. But what about the artists that are employed? They're everywhere and they're utilized in your everyday life, yet you never bring them up.

What about the film you watched last night? The art that hangs in your living room? The bracelet you bought from Etsy last week? The song that's playing on repeat in your head? The videographer that shot your wedding? The creative advertising that convinced you to stop for fast food on Monday? The play you went to over the weekend? We're everywhere, you just don't seem to acknowledge it.

Without these students with creative degrees, you would not have the everyday luxury of entertainment through the arts. Yet, society and the academic world tends to shit on those studying the arts. I know my odds and I know the difficulties an art degree can bring. I did the research when choosing my major, but those hardships can happen to any college student, especially those drowning in debt.

But I have confidence in myself. I have confidence in my degree, my professors, and my university to prepare me for my post-graduate career. I am not "lazy," nor did I pick my degree because I am less intelligent. I picked it because this is what I am good at and this is the field I see myself succeeding in.

So, I think I speak for the entire academic art world when I say... Screw you. Not only am I going to graduate, I'm going to graduate and be employed.