I’ve just about lost my patience with a number of things, so I thought I might as well pour them out with the disclaimer that I haven’t slept well recently, and really, all I want from the world at this point is a cupcake or a strawberry donut:

In no particular order

• People who call themselves “social media experts,” but their advice consists of telling people to use social media sites? Wasn’t that implied? Seriously.
• Business-y words (a lot of business-y things, actually). Marketing, branding, and a host of others. People use them without knowing what they mean, or proceed to use them in all of their conversations. It is possible to overuse certain aspects of the English language.
• Weak handshakes.
• People who think weak handshakes actually imply something about a person, other than that they have weak handshakes.
• The idea that a perception or first impression is absolute.
• Cobras. Why, do you actually like cobras?
• Young adult novels.
• Arrogance, especially arrogance as a result of authority, and especially especially arrogance without any privilege or authority.
• People who look down on other people for any reason and justify themselves in doing so

Those are some pretty generic complaints about society. But none of them bothers me quite as much as someone telling me my major is useless. I am, quite happily, a Classics major — and while it’s annoying having to explain what that is to people, most of whom assume something about literature or “learning languages,” and assume that that’s all there is to it. The reason I chose Classics is because it contains programs of language study and history and literature and anthropology/archaeology. Those are all fields I was interested in before I came to UT, and I was happy that what I loved doing before I got to UT was still viable, and more importantly, a denser subject than I knew it to be.

We’ve being doing this thing at my school called “Career Week” recently, in an effort to get students thinking about their future careers and what they want to do when they graduate. I think the intent is noble: the events publicize the fact that there are other options after college than getting a job immediately. As a result, I sat through a few panels for Classics majors (there aren’t many of us) and Plan II majors (it’s an interdisciplinary honors program/major — that’s the simplest explanation I can give). And I left them awestruck. Both panels told me, essentially, that Plan II and Classics were both augments, and that what I learned in them wouldn’t be directly applicable to any career. They were, essentially, bragging points — resume boosters.

Here’s my take. Plan II is better as a buffer, certainly. If you’re doing a Plan II major, chances are you’ll end up double majoring anyway, because you’ll be taking courses in a preferred field of study, and ideally come out of it with tons of credits. Then again, you could spend the whole time you’re in Plan II enjoying Plan II for what it is, and take courses in so many different areas of study that you can’t even keep them straight in your head. Even this is admirable, and that’s what I love about my honors program.

The thing is, Classics is an actual, full-fledged major. It is by no means an augment. It is something you do for four years. There is a structured, focused course of study, and your degree lends you a certain credibility in all sorts of fields. Incidentally, not even all of the advisors really know what a Classics major is, but it amounts to this: all of the advisors assume is that you won’t be one of the people who ends up going into academia — which is legitimate — but still, the point shouldn’t be to tell someone that their whole course of study won’t get them a “real” job, or to convince them that they have to start exploring all of their interests, in case they find an unusual talent for birdsong or making tiny, mechanical foxes that they want to do for the rest of their life. It’s like saying, “While you were too busy translating Latin, you forgot how much you loved microwaves, until this specific moment when you were making popcorn, and you dropped what you were doing (mostly the popcorn) and went to work for General Electric.” Who does that kind of story benefit? Certainly not those of us who love what we’re doing beyond belief.

I know that, when I graduate, I want to spend some time getting graduate degrees — hopefully a Ph.D., if I’m not burned out at that point. And then I want to do some combination of teaching and writing professionally. It’s really that simple. I won’t make a lot of money — I’m fine with that. If I get a job doing something I don’t like, I’m going to be miserable. Don’t tell me that my major will lead me straight to a desk job with TPS reports and water coolers. Because that’s my choice, and mine alone.