I've heard a lot of things about my art degree, most of them bad. People tend to think that STEM majors are the only ones worth anything, and that arts aren't necessary. I think that is insane. Art has saved my life. Art is just as important as STEM. The world couldn't exist like it does without both of them. But, for some reason, arts are considered lesser, leaving any who get arts degrees open to harassment. Here are a few things that I've heard said about my art degree.

1. What are you going to do with that?

Probably find a job, spend my life doing things that I enjoy, that sort of thing. I am a double major in communication, media, and rhetoric and studio art. My plan, since my freshman year in high school, was to become a freelance, traveling photojournalist. I started out with my communications major, and was a little bit concerned because my school didn’t have a journalism major, or even a journalism track under the communications major, but with the media and rhetoric added on, I was assured that it would be fine. Halfway through my first semester, I decided to add studio art with an emphasis on photography. It was a kind of complicated fit since I wouldn’t be able to start the intro classes until my sophomore year, but I managed to schedule everything that I would need for both majors.

It's tough, but I'm willing to put in the effort to accomplish my goals. It might mean taking summer classes and having 18 to 20 credit semesters, but it will be well worth it in the end. When you find something that you love, nothing else matters. What confused people was the combination communications and studio art degrees. I had to explain to people what studio art is, and they seemed kind of confused as to why there would be different types of art degrees, even though no one expects people to just have a generic science degree, and even within that, people don’t often get a degree just in chemistry. It’s normally a specific type of chemistry. After that, I could explain what I wanted to do and my goals to work for a magazine like "National Geographic." People were always pretty willing to learn, though.

2. It's really cool that you have your life figured out.

Hey, I think so, too. Knowing what you'll use your college degree for is always super helpful. I got this one a lot as a freshman in college. It’s interesting that when I was a junior and senior in high school, I didn’t. I had the same plan that entire time. I knew what I was going to do with my life, and what it would take to get there. I guess people just expect you to know what you’ll major in and what job you want when you’re graduating high school. In college, though, things are different. So many people I knew were undeclared, or, even if they did declare a major, didn’t know what type of job they wanted (and that’s not a bad thing, because sometimes you’ve got to take time to figure yourself out), so it was really novel that a baby-faced freshmen would have it all worked out. People were surprised that I knew what job I wanted, where I wanted to live, and that I was double majoring. It seemed like a lot.

3. I was going to be a studio art major.

This is one of my favorite ones. I was at work, talking with a coworker, and she said this to me. So, I asked what happened and why she changed her mind. She started out as a studio art major, but changed because she didn’t want to get a job only because she had a degree, but based on her talent as an artist. Which, you know, I respect, but honestly, in no situation ever would I be able to get a job simply with the fact that I have a degree in the field, for either of my degrees. Both of these would also require a portfolio along with a resume. Also, I wasn’t going to school and paying money so that I could just get a job. I was going to learn. If I didn’t plan on learning anything, I wouldn’t have gone to school. If I thought that I was good enough to get a job based solely on my portfolio, I would have done that, rather than spend thousands of dollars and four years at a small town in Minnesota. So I’m just curious, does everyone go to school just so they may get a degree, and therefore, a job? Or do people actually plan on learning and becoming better at what they do?

4. You can't have a family.

Yep. If I’m traveling all of the time or consistently putting myself in high-risk, life-or-death situations, I won’t be able to have and take care of a family. It’s a good thing I don’t want one then, isn’t it?

5. You're taking "rocks for jocks?" What a joke.

It was necessary to take science classes as a non-science major. The science without a lab that people often took was a geology course, one that was nicknamed “rocks for jocks” since all the jocky, non-science majors would take that for their science credits. It was a very informative class. I learned a lot and actually didn’t hate going. However, some people laughed out loud when told the name and treated it like a joke when I would talk about the class.

6. You're taking intro psych? What a joke.

Again, I had to take certain humanities credits, and I did so with intro psych. I was talking about a particular study that I found interesting with my friend, and they started talking about how psychology, sociology, and other “soft” science classes were stupid and weren’t worth taking. As someone who had been considering a psychology degree, this was, obviously, very upsetting. Even without my having considered a degree in psychology, it was upsetting. As a journalist, you need to know more than just how to communicate. A liberal arts degree is paramount, I think, for journalists. As someone who will communicate with many different types of people about many different types of things, a base knowledge of different subjects is very important. Needless to say, though, people who don’t support you don’t belong in your life. People who make you feel bad about yourself or the things you do don’t belong in your life. If something makes you happy, then you should do it. If people make you feel bad, then you should get rid of them.

Your life is yours. It’s about you. Take control.