Change Your Attitude, Not Your Major
Originally published on January 23, 2015.
Would you look at that! It’s the twenty-third day of 2015 and this is my first blog post since November of last year. I have been lagging, but I definitely haven’t been slacking. Can you guess what’s been keeping me so busy? If you guessed that I’ve been raising wolves in Canada, you’re wrong (but I wish you were right…) and I’ve actually been doing this thing called school. Like I go to classes and have homework and reading and midterms and studying and finals. FINALS. Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing.
It’s fitting that I was able to open with a little blurb about school, because my first quarter as a transfer student was a little rough. In fact, I found myself questioning my school choice, my major, my minor, my classes… Just about everything related to my education. But! I had a lot of time to really think about both the pressing issues and less significant ones, and I may or may not have ranted about these predicaments on more than one occasion. Here’s a clue: I did. A lot.
“Oh no, does that mean she’s going to rant here, now?” Well, I’m not saying I am going to rant, but I’m also not saying I’m NOT going to rant. I can try to keep it short and sweet, but let’s be real; it’s probably going to be a little more bitter than sweet.
So I’m majoring in Communication Studies, and you’re probably like, “Oh, so you’re going to take a bunch of classes on how to give speeches and then maybe you’ll be a news anchor or something?” HAHA. HA. HA. No. The funny thing is that the only public speaking class that is required of COMS majors is a 101 class, which is also a requirement for EVERY OTHER STUDENT at a California State University, unless you take it as a group speech class. So what is Communication Studies? Well, for one thing, it’s different from “Communications” and it’s different from “Mass Media,” which are similar disciplines but have distinguishing features. Communication Studies is a social science that covers a broad array of topics, including psychology, rhetoric, forensic activity, and media criticism, to name a few. Can I be a news reporter? Yes, if I want to go the journalist route. Can I do something else though?! Yeah, actually, I can, because graduates of my program and those similar to it go on to have careers in marketing, counseling, HR, PR, journalism, administration, sales, recruiting, teaching, research, event planning and management, advertising… You get it, right? The major covers A LOT of ground, so the possibilities are endless. Ew, that was a cliché. Sorry.
Let’s go back a few months. I arrive at my college of choice, a polytechnic university, and am pretty stoked to be studying with a group of students that has the second highest GPA of any major in the College of Liberal Arts. BUT WAIT, there are other colleges and other majors too. And they all literally shit all over the College of Liberal Arts. Ok, obviously not literally, but you get the picture. People are like, “Why would you go to a polytechnic school to study liberal arts?” And I’m over here like, “How about you simmer down and mind your own business?” That was my first wake up call, and it made me lie awake at night and ask myself if I chose the wrong school, or the wrong major. Should I have gone to another university, one that respects individuals that devote time and energy to studying social sciences?
It’s difficult to dismiss thoughts like that, but ultimately I had to remind myself why I’m currently on this path, and, quite frankly I had to remind myself that I am the one who actively chose it. After wanting to prove myself to others for so long, and actually doing so (it felt good, I’ll admit it) I think people were surprised that I did something for my own happiness rather than to impress people. It’s bizarre, right? That I might want to be content in a comfortable environment instead of trying to show everyone how intelligent and competitive I am? What a concept. Long story short, I made the decision to go where I thought I would be happy, and I basically cut out factors such as impressing people, competing with other students, and the possibility of disappointing people around me. I made a decision for myself. Swag.
I’m an advocate for going where you want to go. Don’t let people pressure you into doing something you aren’t ready to do, or entering a new territory that makes you have second thoughts. And don’t pressure other people. Don’t make judgements. Don’t run your mouth when you don’t have experience or evidence to support what you’re saying. I’ve compiled a list of things you might want to consider, whether you’re looking down on yourself or looking down on your peers, because you probably just need to change your attitude, not your major.
1. Study your passion. News flash: I didn’t choose to study COMS because it was easy (plot twist: it’s the furthest thing from easy. I’ve never read so much in my life.) I chose it because I’m passionate about understanding how humans interact. I’m genuinely interested in why people do the things they do while communicating, and I want to learn how I can be a more effective communicator and share my findings with others. I study people during my everyday interactions. I want to help people. I want to listen. I want to understand. What do you want to do? If you don’t have a passion, channel an interest and don’t be ashamed. Not everyone wants to make unthinkable amounts of money or build airplanes that run on used cooking oil or operate on human organs. Some people just want to follow their hearts, and I highly recommend doing just that.
2. Don’t encourage stereotypes. I cannot tell you how many times I hear people say that Business majors are lazy and that English majors don’t have any real homework. And that Engineering majors will never get laid and that Ag majors can’t spell and that COMS majors are all talk and that Art majors will never get a job and that Architecture majors don’t have social lives. Every time I hear a rude remark or read a disrespectful post on social media, my pulse quickens and I feel my face flushing. Not gonna lie, I get pissed. I’m continually blown away by the complete lack of respect and snide comments that are blatantly thrown around my campus and displayed on my Yik Yak feed. Instead of criticizing someone else for choosing a major that’s NOT your major, how about you give him or her the benefit of the doubt and assume that it’s something that makes him or her happy, and then you turn around and focus on YOUR major and get YOUR shit together. To be honest, I can’t comprehend why everyone cares so much about other people’s business anyway… You’re like, “Well everyone is talking about it so it’s everyone’s business, and everyone knows the stereotypes anyway so we just keep endorsing them…” and I’m like, “Yeah, I know what you mean. I went to high school once too, but then I graduated and now I’m a mature adult.”
3. Remember the phrase, “to each his (or her) own.” I don’t know about other schools, but at my school, everyone thinks that the smartest kids are the engineers. I’m not saying this is wrong; I personally know many engineers (electrical, mechanical, biomedical, aerospace) who are extremely bright and very well-qualified. But maybe there are other students who are just as smart. Maybe other students are not engineers because they don’t want to be engineers. WHAT?!? You mean not everyone wants to be an engineer or a doctor?! No, they don’t, and I know plenty of people who would make brilliant engineers and surgeons and mathematicians, but that won’t happen if their hearts aren’t in it. Some people are great at calculus and physics, but maybe they’re more interested in psychology and history. There are incredibly smart and talented individuals in every major, and personal interests are often what lead us to where we are meant to be. Contrary to popular belief, not all of us smart and talented individuals are interested in becoming doctors and lawyers.
4. Consider the effort. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people make assumptions about a student’s workload based on his or her major. It’s true that Engineering majors are spending their nights working problem sets, but just because a Political Science major doesn’t have problem sets doesn’t mean that he or she isn’t reading 3 chapters and writing a literature review. Math majors might have to memorize formulas, but History majors have to memorize names and dates. The thing is, you can’t compare your courses to the classes of others, because you don’t know exactly what they’re studying or how much effort they’re putting in. On top of that, most classes cannot even be measured against classes from another college because it’s a different type of work and a different method of learning. No, I don’t have to do calculus equations for hours, but you probably didn’t have to write 10+ papers, let alone one paper that is 22 pages long. Sure, some people slack and don’t do their work; that happens in any major. But while you’re trying to do two application problems, another person is writing a research paper, and someone else is finishing up an analytical essay. You’re not taking the same classes as the person that you’re judging, so don’t bother to judge him or her in the first place.
Let’s vow to be respectful of our peers, because there’s a good chance that they’re tired of being ridiculed.
Hayley Walker is a nonprofit development professional working in San Francisco, California. With a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and a Masters of Nonprofit Administration, her passions include human communication, art, service to others, the great outdoors, and dogs. Lots of dogs.
