I am probably the worst blogger in the history of blogging. But never mind that.
As a preface to the story I am about to tell, last January, I decided to follow my life-long dreams and become an English/Creative Writing major instead of following the extremely boring path of Electrical Engineering.
My first semester at college (when I was still intimidated by things such as "the job market" and "being a starving artist"), I met this guy who was from somewhere in Africa (Ethiopia?) who was also part of the wonderful electrical engineering program. We met in the Junction and discussed our mutual engineering-ness and other such things. I saw him from time to time; basically we had the sort of relationship where I would wave as I passed him on the sidewalk and he would nod in return. I only really ever had that one conversation with him.
Last week the new semester started, and I was going happily along, excited for my schedule full of English and Literature classes. As I was walking, I saw this man again. As we were walking in the same direction, there was plenty of time for some conversation instead of the usual head nod. I was actually surprised that he remembered my name and such as it had been almost a year since we talked.
Anyway, it came up that I was no longer an engineering major. I'm not sure what sort of reaction I was expecting for this news, but I was definitely not expecting a lecture. For the extent of walking from somewhere around the education building to the library, I got to hear the reasons why engineering was the best major, and switching to English basically meant I was throwing my life away and giving up my one chance to change the world.
Well, thanks for that.
I'm not sure if there's actually anything interesting about that story, except for this: don't criticize people when they've finally gained the courage to follow their heart instead of going along with the expected "job stability" course, even if your intentions are good. It's not cool.
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