"Oh you're an advertising major, of course you have a 4.0 GPA because it's easy."
Countless times I have been asked what my major is; it's one of the most common questions you will hear as a college student. But, when I tell people that I am a double major in advertising and communication studies, people scoff at me. I'm often passed off as unintelligent or trying to take the easy way out of college by people with more "difficult" majors, like accounting or engineering.
Why do people do this? Why do they think that just because their major involves more science and equations, or statistics and numbers, that it automatically qualifies their major to be more difficult? They are...
I find several fallacies within this mind state of those critics with science or business-related majors.
One, not every person is wired the same way. What do I mean by this? For instance, not everyone is an excellent public speaker... hell, most people are petrified of speaking in front of others. However, some people thrive in this atmosphere, like political science and communications majors. The same way some people are phenomenal at computing and crunching numbers.
Two, I understand that working in accounting requires long hours looking at spreadsheets and dealing with functions. Yes, this is hard. Balancing chemical equations is hard. Designing structures is hard. Every major has its challenges! However, because my brain isn't wired to think with numbers and statistics but rather ideas and creative thought, I don't think I am any less intelligent or disqualified to say my major isn't difficult.
If you stick someone with a biology major behind a computer screen and asked them to Photoshop a family of four into a picture displaying a mid-size SUV, they would be lost. If someone to asked me to explain Bernoulli's principle and apply it to a situation, I would be lost. Anything can be difficult based on what kind of thinker you are.
To the people who are in their majors because they absolutely love what they are doing: keep doing it. People will always criticize you for taking an "easy" major, and most of the time, they simply equate the fact that their starting salary *might* be higher than yours to their major being more difficult. Different people think different ways, so it is hard to equate what is hard anymore in such a specialized world.
I was always told growing up that I could do anything I wanted to do because I was intelligent enough, and I still believe this. There's no doubt in my mind that if I wanted to be a chemical engineer and make plenty of money out of college I could. But I am not in college for the money.
Let them think that way. Not everyone was born to be an engineer or a doctor. I say that to say this: not everyone was born to think critically or outside the box to convey ideas in a fresh way and apply those ideas to shake up the boring routines that we fall into in our everyday lives.
I learned long ago to find something that I love to do, and just do it. The money will come with it. Because I would rather be in a career where I can wake up each and every morning to something I enjoy doing and be happy, versus working a job every day that I can't wait to get off of just because of the money.
If you enjoy and excel at what you do, the salary will come it.
