Photo courtesy of Heather on flickr.com

If you’re studying something liberal arts, then there’s a strong possibility you’ve had your major chuckled at before. I’m majoring in Strategic Communications, but I’ve grown accustomed to including my minors in my academic self-description. In fact, if I don’t finish with, “but I’m minoring in IT,” I feel as though I’m short-selling myself to the person I’m communicating with. There is a stigma surrounding the study of communications: that those who study it do so because it is easy, or because they don’t know what else to do. Often, when I tell someone that I am studying communications, I feel guilty.

This is something I’ve struggled with more recently in my adult life. Stigma or no stigma, communication is something I’m actually pretty good at. I have had many trials of wishing that I enjoyed math or science more. I’ve already pushed myself to take coding classes, and therefore supplement a major that’s otherwise categorized as “lazy” or “easy.”

The distinction I want to make in this piece does not involve retaliating against engineering or physics. I’m not at the place where I’d like to justify liberal arts by putting down another field of study. However, I’m making a case for myself, and perhaps other communications majors who feel the way that I do.

I adore communicating. To me, candy isn’t as sweet as the ability to perfectly articulate thoughts or feelings into a pattern of words that someone else can physically feel. How cool is that? Words make waves across the human body, and it’s incredible. If you can think of a song that makes your heart jump into your throat, or a poem that makes you sweat with nostalgia, or even a text that shoots anger throughout your body, then you might understand this notion. Communication is timeless, always changing, and essential to almost everything we do.

I don’t know exactly where I want to end up. I’m not sure what my dream job is, and I certainly don’t have a five-year plan. However, if I close my eyes, and picture what my future happiness looks like, I see people. I see shaking hands and meeting new faces. I see meaningful discussions, collaboration, laughter, and the appreciation of impacting others. I’m not saying that every communications major is passionate about it, and I’m not denying that physics, finance, and biochemical engineering aren’t incredibly difficult fields of study that would crush my GPA. All I’m saying is, I have a brain that usually thinks in terms of people and emotions rather than numbers and algorithms. It’s not better or worse than anyone else, it’s just how I am. For me, living life to the fullest means prioritizing a career where I get to communicate, and that’s why I’m studying communications. I am where I’m supposed to be, and I don’t want to feel guilty about it anymore.