It’s no secret that most college majors are surrounded by stigma. Education- all we do is color. Engineering- they think they’re the smartest ones on campus. Communications- they wanted the easy major. English- They just like to read. I could go on for days about stereotypes for majors. But, that’s exactly what they are… Stereotypes and stigmas that come from a place of ignorance and assumption.

Being a Secondary Education English major, I take offense when people ask me, “So, do you, like, color all the time in class and learn how to write on a chalkboard?” Yes, I have actually been asked that question in a very serious tone because some people honestly think that’s what my school day looks like. However, they couldn’t be more wrong!

I only color when I’m stressed…. Don’t judge me, it’s relaxing…

Also, I don’t sit around, color, and learn how to be quiet for the students while they nap. Um, HELLO! I’m going to be teaching in a high school. When is the last time you heard of a high school having designated nap time? And, no, taking 20 minutes during study hall to catch up on your sleep doesn’t count as designated nap time? Also, if you have heard of a high school with designated nap time, could you point me in that direction because that is DEFINITELY somewhere that I want to teach!

Anyway, you see, there are stigmas around every major that usually aren’t true. But the thing is, it’s hard not to believe some of those stereotypes when you’re working your tail off writing upwards of three papers a week, and there are some people that have the time to go out four times a weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday day, Saturday night- Yes, I know, it’s a lot, but come on, it’s college). Having been in that position of being buried in due dates every week (someone remind me why I thought it would be a good idea to take six English courses in a single semester), I have been no stranger to looking on other people jealously for the apparent ease of their major. On more than one occasion I have been known to question why in the world I chose a major and a concentration that required so much work when there are plenty of other majors that seem to be much less time-consuming.

However, my eyes were recently opened to a little-known fact that I feel could use some advertisement towards my fellow college students, and I’ll let you in on that secret very soon.

This semester I’m taking a course called The Writer’s Room in which my peers and I have been writing, casting, rehearsing, and producing a full and soon-to-be internationally released podcast. While I’m not in the audio drama as a character because I have the acting talent of a chicken nugget, I have had to write a portion of the podcast as well as attend and direct several rehearsals and recording sessions. All of this experience cleared the fog of my mind that makes the concept of theater just a bit hazy.

Before this semester, I had always known that theater necessitated a significant time commitment and obviously took a great deal of talent. What I wasn’t aware of is just how massive of a time commitment any type of theater is and just how difficult it is to manage and coordinate such a large number of people.

My podcast is relatively small in scale to any other theater or podcast production, but the amount of work and effort that went into it was tremendous, especially since we, as a class, only meet twice a week for 15 weeks.

That being said, I was in a mindset just a few months ago that has said, “Theater majors probably have a lot of fun and not a lot of homework. That’s got to be a great major!” While I wouldn’t have said that theater is a particularly easy major, I would’ve said that it’s vastly different from other majors… Which is true.

My experience writing and producing my podcast opened my eyes because I was given an entirely new perspective on a major and a lifestyle completely different from my own. From this experience, I learned a lot about college and how we perceive our peers that we don’t have the same major as, as well as how we should perceive them. I learned that envy or jealousy over someone else’s workload only hurts ourselves because what we see of other people, their majors and their workload is only part of their story.

So, back to that little-known-fact that I mentioned earlier… At the end of the day, whether your workload is light, heavy, or just right, every major has it’s busy and not-so-busy times of the semester. We should never envy someone else’s major or workload because you should be in a major that will make you happy both when you’re studying it AND when you’re out in the field doing what you love.

I’ll have to keep that in mind during finals when I have six final papers, three finals, and two final projects due.

(P.S. Keep your eyes open for my podcast "Standards of Behavior" airing Summer 2018 on itunes and other podcast streaming sites!)