“What are you going to do with that?” “Are you going to be a teacher?” “Where is the use in that?” These are the responses I always get whenever I tell people that I am a history major, and I am frankly sick of it. For too long, I and millions of students like me have been pigeonholed into schools and academia.

One day in my senior year, I met four history alumni of my university and none of them were teachers or professors. The business and STEM industries seem more focused on the question of “How?” whereas the liberal arts is more focused on “Why?” Business and STEM majors are both focused on objectives, results, and efficiency. Liberal arts majors are too but in different ways.

My junior year of college, I had a friend who worked as a teaching assistant for an engineering class. They were a senior majoring in English. I asked them what they did for the class as an English major, and they said they grade all the lab reports the students write. I then asked her how were they and without hesitation, they said, “THEY ARE HORRIBLE!” That is the basic reason why we need liberal arts because everybody needs to learn how to communicate their thoughts effectively on paper (and in speech).

Perhaps lawyers are the paradigms of liberal arts, because their careers are based around thinking in the abstract and communicating precisely and effectively while at the office, and the best part is that the options are virtually endless which type of law they want to practice: they can range from defending someone falsely accused of a crime to negotiating a treaty between nations. But we often neglect all the other practitioners of liberal arts outside the realm of law.

Let’s make one thing clear: liberal arts majors aren’t in it just for the money, which might sound like blasphemy in today’s society.

Instead, they’re in it for the passion. Rather than dedicating their studies--and their lives--to studying an unfulfilling subject and working an unfulfilling job, those who major in liberal arts dedicate their lives to something they want to live for: humanity.

The disregard and disposability people show for liberal arts tells me only one thing: we are fixated on improving our condition. Technology is constantly revolutionizing the ways communicate with each other, the ways we consume information, and the ways we conduct medical procedures. It only tells us that there is something wrong and needs to get fixed right now.

Liberal arts and humanities exist to remind us how far humans of come in advancing civilization, how much humans have achieved in improving their condition.

The humanities exist to preserve the human record. That’s why we have literature, history, philosophy, and theatre. The stories and ideas that each convey offer insights into the human condition so we can better understand ourselves and each other.