Nowadays science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are so pushed on students at a young age. I can remember doing STEM days in elementary school. Teachers, parents, and counselors highly encourage STEM or STEM-related paths because "it's the way of the future."

Yes, STEM students are the future doctors and scientists and physicists, but what about the future historians, lawyers, and artists? The world needs a balance of all majors to thrive, and we should encourage students to pursue their passion, not just the largest money-maker or the highest job growth. As a student pursuing music, I am not geared towards STEM in any way, shape, or form, and that is okay. I recognize that my strengths lie in the humanities of history, English, and music. Those are what I am passionate about, and those are what I am pursuing.

The humanities are an essential part of what makes us as a society human, so it is important that we have people who pursue them with fervor. In the same way that doctors must be passionate about biology, historians must have a passion for humanity. STEM and the humanities need to coexist, but schools create a climate of "STEM is better than the humanities because it makes you more money." This creates an oppressive atmosphere for the kids who do love music, art, and history, and it feels like people look down at you for wanting to pursue your passion. Throughout high school, if I told people that I wanted to major in music I would get a look and they would say "oh, cool."

The world needs people who are passionate about what they do. Sure, there are many people who are passionate about math, medicine, and engineering, but often there are people who were pushed in that direction by their parents or even the social climate at their high school.

People who aren't passionate about their career path generally give reasons like "this will make me the most money" or "this is how I'll get a real job," but people in the humanities do make money and have jobs. Often, university-level courses in the arts are equally rigorous as courses in engineering and chemistry, just in different ways.

People should be brave enough to pursue their passion, not just what is popular and a "money maker." The world is built for more than just sciences, and we need people to keep humanity human through a focus on things like the arts and literature.