One of the toughest decisions we make as college students is our major. When I started applying for college, I had no idea what I wanted to study. With my family being all medical people, there was pressure for me to become a nurse or doctor. I never liked science in school, with the exception of chemistry. There was no way I would be any kind of STEM type major and it was hard for my parents to accept that. I wanted to be a communication major because it utilized my best skills: creativity, writing and design.
Being a communication major has opened my eyes to the biggest problem plaguing our colleges: the thought that certain majors don’t matter. Most of these majors tend to be the ones in the humanities. I’ve always gotten picked on for my major. Everybody tells me, “you won’t be able to do anything with that” or, “there will be no jobs when you graduate”. It becomes one of the most daunting tasks to explain to my family what I’m going to do with my degree. On top of that, I also hear phrases such as, “the medical field is where you make the money” or, “you’ll always have a job in the medical field”. People will say that my major is unnecessary or it isn’t needed.
Well, let me tell you something… all major matter.
Not everybody can be a scientist. Not everybody can be a nurse or a doctor. We are all unique individuals with unique personalities, traits and interests. If everybody was a doctor or nurse, who would write books? Who would teach kids how to read and write? Who would fix our cars, our plumbing or electricity? Without diversity, we are a lackluster one-dimensional society. We can’t all be nursing, computer science, engineering or biology majors. We need diversity to have a properly functioning society.
Now don’t get me wrong. Doctors, nurses, scientists, and engineers are vital to our society. We need them to help the sick, create new technology, discover cures and tell us how the world works. These people are vital to helping our society function. Humanities majors are vital to helping our society function too.
Without someone who majors in communication, how do you advertise your business? Sure you have this great hospital with all this cool technology, but how do you tell the world that? How could scientists document and publish their research without English teachers, editors, and publishers? How can we teach others about religion is no one is a theology major? How would we teach people to think outside the box and think beyond facts if we didn’t have philosophy majors? Humanities majors are just as necessary as medical majors. Medical majors need humanities majors. We need each other. We wouldn’t have a functioning society without one another.
Humanities majors aren’t the only ones who get picked on for their major. Numerous majors in the medical community get belittled. The one I constantly hear is people belittling occupational therapy majors. These are always the lines I hear: “Isn’t that the same thing as a physical therapy major? What’s the point of an occupational therapy major?” Being friends with OT majors, I know these two things are different. They may seem the same, but occupational therapists are necessary. Some people won’t be able to get back to a normal routine without an occupational therapist.
What I’m getting at is that there is no reason to belittle anyone’s major. Yes, we need medical people, engineers, scientists, and math whizzes. They play a vital role in our everyday lives, but we also need other kinds of majors. We need communication majors to create advertisements, we need theater majors in order to have Broadway and teach future kids to find love for the stage and we need art majors in order to help people have an outlet where they can be creative and show the world what art can do. We need theology, philosophy, social work and criminal justice majors. Whatever your passion is, whatever major you love, do it. It’s like they say: “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
