College is hard. I'm going to start with that because it is. The pursuit of post-secondary education is difficult, no matter what you study.
I am a double major in Secondary Education and English Literature, and I also have a minor in journalism. I work 20+ hours a week, I commute, and college is difficult for me. It may not be difficult in the sense that I have formulas and laws to study like physics and engineering majors, but I do have to read hundreds of pages of assigned texts and write papers off the hook.
I am sick of my collegiate struggles being invalidated by the fact that I study Shakespeare instead of Isaac Newton, or Jane Austen instead of Galileo.
Every one of us has a different scale for difficulty, and what is "easy" for one person may not be "easy" for other people. We cannot keep comparing apples to oranges like this, because college is difficult for everyone. It really doesn't matter what you study, just the fact that you're voluntarily paying to further your education is worthy of your pride.
It almost feels like there is a stigma around any field of study that does not fall under the umbrella of STEM. I can't even count how many times, after telling people my major(s), I've been told, "You know you're just majoring in unemployment," or, "You won't make enough money doing that," or, "You'll hate kids after a week".
I am not by any means calling out STEM majors, but I am saying that no one questions anyone that says they're a math or science major. Newsflash: some of us just aren't wired for logistic and formula-based fields like that. But, that doesn't mean that what we decide to study instead is "easy" by comparison.
I feel like I can't talk about the four papers and two books I have to have finished in the same week, because for some reason, deciphering 400-year-old literature and analyzing it in a ten-page research paper is "easy".
I don't go around saying that Calculus and Physics are easy, and if you study something of that nature I will readily listen about how difficult it is to remember all those formulas and concepts. However, in return, I expect you to listen to me discuss the different periods of history and literature with the same respect.
Majoring in music is hard. Education is hard. Psychology and Philosophy are hard. College is hard, and it is okay to struggle. We all experience difficulties and struggles in different ways, and it is time to stop invalidating each other based on what we study.
So yes, my double Sec-Ed and English major is hard. Yes, I am just as stressed as those Bio and Chem majors. Yes, college is stressful, and no it doesn't matter what you study.
To all of my non-STEM majors reading this, keep doing it. Your struggles are real to you, and don't listen to anyone that tells you its easy because "all you do is read and write papers".
If you think college is easy for me, let's switch places. I know math and science are hard, they've always been hard for me, and that's why I'm studying Education AND English AND Journalism. So take my classes, my full 18 credit 6 class schedule, for a week, and let me know if you still think I have it "easy".
