The worst possible thing I can be asked as a college student is what my major is or what I want to be in the future. These questions might sound harmless, but they come with strings attached. They require definite answers, and you are guaranteed to be judged no matter how you answer.
If you say you have a STEM-related major, people see you as intelligent, and if you say you want to be, for example, a doctor or lawyer no one questions your ability to be successful.
However, if you say you are majoring in the arts or English, people look at you a little confused. They then ask you what you want to do with that because they have this preconceived notion that jobs don’t require skills in the arts and any job that does won’t pay well. Maybe it’s the economy we live in, but there is this understanding that people work every day of their lives until they die.Society tells you that you need to have a certain kind of job to survive. It doesn’t matter if it’s the kind of job you hate. It doesn’t matter how you feel or what you like as long as you are making money. I don’t think this is true, however, especially now that the arts are starting to receive recognition. People are making good money just putting up YouTube videos with creative content, so I absolutely think you can live off of a job doing what you love. It might be harder, but it is definitely possible.
For me, it is also really off-putting that some people try to shackle college kids into one specific future. I personally decided to go to college so that I could have more opportunities open to me, not so I could make a plan of one, indestructible course for the rest of my life. I am an English major, and I know I want to be an editor at a publishing company, but I am open to any opportunity that comes my way.
I know that things rarely go according to plan, and something that I never expected might be what I end up loving and doing. I think all college students should be able to feel that sense of freedom when it comes to their future.