I had two separate experiences over the course of the last two weeks that made me stop and consider how arts and the humanities are pigeon-holed in our world.

The first experience was in my car. A well-known college advertisement flickered on, with the President of the college exclaiming how to speed up your degree while simultaneously encouraging the pursuit of the humanities as a degree.

The second experience was in a recent interview. The interviewer examined my resume, frowned, and looked up at me scornfully. "What career path did you see for yourself when you decided to become an English major?"

Needless to say, the two experiences demonstrated very different perceptions of value for this field.

On one hand, a renowned individual pushed for the study of the arts, claiming its value in our current world.
On the other hand, a potential employer looked past my GPA and job history, instead questioning why I had pursued my field.

With the close occurrence of these two events, I couldn't help but wonder: How can the world express such vastly different judgments on the value of discipline?

In response to the people who frown at the humanities, claim that they are a waste and argue that the world is based on technology and computers, let me tell you this.

I am a child of the arts and the humanities.

As a child, both reading, writing, and art were the outlets that allowed me to express myself. Theater entered my life, and for the first time I learned I had a voice. It is a voice that accelerated quickly, and still continues to today. It is also a voice I might not have found if I hadn't stepped out on that stage for the first time fifteen years ago.

In high school, Speech and Debate entered the scene, in tandem with theatre, helping me to become confident in who I was and what I had to say. Debate challenged me to consider all sides of an argument, teaching my young mind what perspective really was; the necessity to defend my beliefs when challenged in a debate forced me to consider where my beliefs fell. Speech helped me understand the virtue of practice and the recovery after defeat.

College was my next journey, and while my hobbies fell to more important academics, my passion for reading and writing continued. In books, I was able to go on adventures and learn about different points of view, people, and possibility. I interacted with characters of different cultures, classes, and genders. I encountered authors that allowed me reconsider what I thought to be true. Through writing, I was able to circulate new ideas, engaging with them in specific ways. More importantly, I realized the catharsis of writing, both mentally and emotionally. Where all other studies bored me, writing allowed my mind to work in a way that was both strategic and creative.

So let me ask you this, why wouldn't I have picked English as my degree?

To all the people who frown at the humanities, claim they are a waste, argue the world is based in technology and computers: you're wrong.

There are those of us, many of us, who have grown into ourselves and learned to thrive through the experiences that the humanities provided. We learned self-pride, enthusiasm, dedication, empathy, and so much more through the studies and extracurricular activities that have been deemed worthless.

In a world where technology, artificial intelligence, and computers rule; arts and the humanities remind us who we really are: human.