Several days ago, scrolling through my Twitter feed I came across a tweet that proved both irritating, inaccurate and pompous. A pharmacy major was initially griping about the trials and tribulations of pharmacy school (with good reason, I'm sure without a doubt). He or she then proceeded to say that all of the trials of pharmacy school would be worth it in the end, because he or she wouldn't have to beg for a $30,000 job offer the same way a liberal arts major would. As a liberal arts student myself, a multi-platform journalism major with a penchant for creativity, communication, the written word and media, I found this tweet not only flawed but offensive in its antics. I have heard one too many times how this major is more difficult than that, or how this major cannot possibly earn as much as another. Enough is enough.
Shaming someone for their major is dangerous in a way that's different from body shaming or slut-shaming, or any of the other shames we so casually toss around left and right.
Major shaming is shaming the essence of a person. It is shaming the very passions, motivations and talents a person has been given to share and to service the world with.
Talk like that above was what inspired me to step into freshman year undecided. I heard time and time again how my desired major was not lucrative enough, not stable enough, didn't involve enough discipline to be marketable, how it was "too easy" to be profitable.
I can assure you being a journalism major is not easy. I truly believe you must possess a certain level of creativity and humility to be a writer, because if you don't, your writing will humble you all by itself. You will stare at the same piece for hours on end, picking it apart word by word. You are forced to craft a story out of nothing on a daily basis. You must have an eye, an ear and a heart for the stories around you twenty-four seven.
Just like a pharmacy major must retain oodles of critical information and know how and when to use it.
The skills are different, but one is not paramount to the other.
Where would the world be without pharmacists, nurses, surgeons, mathematicians, storytellers, scientists, educators, historians, politicians, business, artists, social workers? It takes all kinds of people to make up this world.
So the next time you think about shaming someone for taking up a discipline they're passionate about, maybe bite your tongue.
Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO has a B.A. in Medieval History and Philosophy.
Michael Eisner, a former CEO of Walt Disney Company has a B.A. in English Literature and Theater.
Howard, Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, has a B.S. in communications.
Just sayin'.
