Right before I headed back to Kenyon I was talking to my little brother, who was about to enter his senior year in high school. The natural topic of conversation was college. My little brother insisted that he only wanted to go to a college that had a business program. When I pressed on asking why, he insisted that he had an interest in business, but moreover that he could envision a life where he could make good money and then maybe retire early. I tried to impress upon him that once he is at college he will be surrounded by a wide range of subjects to choose from, more than were offered in high school, and that he should not just choose a school based on business. But he rejected any ideas of considering other majors. Why? Because of a lack of money in that field.
This is not the first time that I have either participated in or overheard a similar conversation. As a junior, I have watched senior friends worry about future jobs and what they are doing next year. So much of those conversations are aligned with talks of money. If someone will be taking an unpaid internship it is so that they can gain experience in a job line that will one day pay them a lot of money. I have also had so many conversations with friends over the years about what majors to pick. I have friends who have chosen majors purely because they see it as a way into a world of job opportunities that will gain a type of security that it seems only money can achieve. I also know people who by senior year stray completely from their chosen major to go to business or law school in hopes to have a more lucrative career. In 2013, most degrees were earned in the fields of business (source), which shows that on the whole students are tending towards a “practical” major.
I, myself, cannot say with pride that I strayed from this notion and picked a major blind with passion for the subject. I love my major, but before deciding on it I thought about the possible jobs that can come from it. Now, I am not trying to shame anyone who chooses a business major or any major because they can foresee a life of financial security, but I cannot help but sit and wonder where this all stems from.
I think a huge part of it is the school we go to. There is no question that Kenyon College is an elite college and therefore we feel that we need to live up to this elite standard. William Deresiewicz, an ex-Yale professor, details this phenomenon in his book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the way to a Meaningful Life. Deresiewicz argues (and I would have to agree) that students at elite schools, such as Kenyon, are losing their abilities to truly think critically and creatively and losing any sort of real passion and instead are tending to these “practical majors.”
But really looking at it, how can students not get trapped into this world of picking a major that seems like it will lead them down a path of success. We are at a college where we feel pressured every day to perform or it will be an expensive education wasted. We want the security that money can definitively give us—a security that tells us that we will be able to pay off college loans. But even more than that, we have been sold this idea since we were children that the American dream is to be able to live in a perfect house with a picket fence and 2.5 children and the security money will be able to achieve this for us. But, shouldn’t there be security in other things? The security that happiness could bring when we choose a job we love and a path of life that we love, not just the life we start living after we get to be retired. Shouldn’t we want to be secure in the idea that the line of work we choose is something that we are truly passionate in? I think that Kenyon students are some of the most passionate people I have met, but to me there still seems to be this goal of making large salaries one day, and I am not sure how we can escape that.
Although it seems impossible to escape it, is something that we have to try our hardest to do. Kenyon is the perfect place to find your true passion. There are so many amazing and interesting classes and instead of choosing ones that may lead to an eventual monetary value, pick ones that truly interest you. At the end of your life, the thing that will make you happiest is what you are truly passionate in.