When coming to Williams, one of the first things you hear everyone say is: “Major in something you love.” But here’s a hot take: not everyone is able to major in something they love.
A few nights ago, I was catching up with a senior near Jessup Hall. While I explained my lack of interest in chemistry to him, he explained his original lack of interest in biology to me – only until I realized that he was explaining something far deeper.
Speaking hardly above a whisper, he said, “I hated bio at first, but I stuck with it. I guess… the thing is that everyone tells you in college to have the time of your life, to major in something you love, but that’s for the people who can. Most people can’t. They need a job after this. Like, a lot of people around here say that econ majors sell their souls, but that’s not true – it’s just that sometimes making sure that your family is taken care of is more important than taking classes that you love.”
And he’s right. Here, at Williams, an “elite” liberal arts college, everyone tells you to major in something you love. But this does not consider each individual and their background – this notion assumes that students at Williams are a monolith. Everyone presumes that we are privileged enough to do what we love, without regards to the future – without worrying about if a job can help our family pay the next light bill, or if a certain income will help pay off our student loans, or if further schooling for a career is needed that we cannot afford. We are expected to be on a level playing field, but that cannot be further from the truth.
By telling students to major in something they love, we tell students that this is the only right way to do Williams. And by creating this system, we unintentionally alienate students who cannot choose this path. At Williams, we always talk about the importance of belonging. But if we truly want to create a system where everyone belongs, we should not tell students that they must do what they love.
Undoubtedly, there are students at Williams who choose their major due to their interests. But there are also students at Williams who choose to major in economics because they want their family to have food on the table, and there are students who are pre-med so that they can achieve financial security in the future. There are many students who simply do not have the privilege to major in something they love, but this should not be frowned upon. Students who pick certain majors because they want to uplift themselves or their families should not be viewed as wrong – in fact, we should view their motives as inspiring or altruistic.
I do not want to say that students should not choose a major based on something that they love. I simply want to say that students should not feel that their only option is to major in something that they love. Because by doing this, we isolate students who are not advantaged enough to do so. I firmly believe that if a student wants to become a lawyer because it is a lucrative career, he should not be viewed as less than a student who majors in sociology because of his interest in culture.
While I know that this may not be the hot take you were looking for, I hope it is an honest take. The fact remains that many students cannot pick their classes based on their interests at Williams because they do not have the financial security and familial safety net to do so. But this does not mean that we should look down on these students. If we truly want to create a sense of belonging at Williams, here is where we should start. We should acknowledge the fact that not everyone chooses to major in what they love – and that there is nothing wrong with that.