Near the end of last semester, I went to a social gathering with a friend and the two of us began talking to a pair of girls we hadn't met. As introductions usually go in college, we said our name, where we're from, and what we're majoring in. Everyone else was psychology, business, other things... then I said I was majoring in journalism.

One of the girls we were talking to gave me an odd look. It was almost dirty, a bit disappointed, slightly disdained.

While the moment passed quickly for everyone else, for me, time stopped for a second. That look shook me to my core. It's something I have started to expect and it's not the first time I have experienced it. It made me wonder what made her think it was appropriate to give me a look like that, or what preconceived notions she had about me, or if it was even conscious or subconscious.

"The Look" does not usually exist for people who decide to major in math, biomedical sciences, nursing, business, engineering of any kind... but there is a subset of Other majors. Art, theology, philosophy. Foreign languages, especially Latin and Greek. Anthropology and linguistics. Women's gender and sexuality studies. Journalism. The first list of majors is what you might consider to be practical, difficult, revolutionary and legitimate. The second list, well, you might call those people impractical dreamers. They are the ones who take the low-hanging fruit. They are the ones destined to fail.

Except we're not.

If you are one of those Other majors like me, you know those stereotypes are not true. What we do can be difficult and revolutionary. If you are not one of those majors, here's your chance to change your mind about Other majors. You might be asking an art major, "Why on earth would you go to college for art? Isn't that setting yourself up for the broke artist life?" The question you should be asking is, "Why do you love art enough to pursue a living within it?" Yes, there have been plenty of successful people in the arts who did not go to college and still managed to gather a lot of fame, but that is no reason to shut someone down and tell them they should do something else because it pays better. There's a chance for everyone to go broke, not just the people who didn't go into pre-med.

Many of these Other majors aren't just limited to a specific skill set or career under their degree. For instance, English majors don't always turn out to be teachers -- the skill set of an English degree is desired by employers in hundreds of careers, including but not limited to business, analytics, public relations, and finance. Degrees in the classics are huge plusses for getting into graduate programs like medicine and law. A lot of these majors also provide critical workforce skills like analytical and critical thinking, excellent writing and communication skills, and problem-solving. And personally, I think that if we as Other majors have the courage and grit to willingly pursue the programs we truly love, we will achieve what we want to achieve because we have already demonstrated the resolve to survive and thrive within our studies, against all odds and opposition.

With regards to the typical careers for these Other majors, maybe they are not very prolific in terms of salary or benefits. But you can bet your bottom dollar that we're doing it to be happy, no matter what happens. Happiness is not quantitative, but you can sure get a lot of it if you just do what you're passionate about and don't think so much about your 401k. You might be afraid of doing something "impractical" because it never guarantees a job (and just because you have a "practical" degree does not mean you are guaranteed employment), but just look at the world around you. There is a place for the arts and humanities and everything else considered irrelevant in the technology age; there will always be a place because without it we are not human. If everyone starts thinking like this, we lose our culture and social values. Ultimately, we lose our human essence and our creativity.

There is a reason why art, music, history, and other humanities classes are still required in all schools, from elementary to college. Those classes give us a chance to figure out that about which we are impassioned. They give us a chance at seeing if we're good at something, and if we are (or even if we aren't), giving us dreams to dream and lives to live free of worry because we're doing what we want to do and not what we're expected to.