When I was 15, one of my closest friends confided to me that he wanted to drop out of college, ditch his biochem major and go to art school. I was completely and utterly mortified. Why waste the two years you’ve spent in college and why leave a “good” major like biochem for something like art? How would he find a job? How would he support himself? How would he put food on the table? These questions plagued me for a long time, but all of us gave him our blessings and told him the decision was his. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit we all thought he had made a horrible decision. Art? Who’s an art major? And how much do they make anyway? His parents were going to be pissed.

Fast forward many years later and my Youtube inbox gets flooded with messages every day from younger girls asking me how I chose my major, what did I want to do in life? They were stuck, and wanted to know how and why I made my decision. Quite honestly I made my decision the only way I know how: I made my decision the hard way.

I really struggled with whether or not I should write this blog for a variety of reasons. The first being I didn’t want some angry asian parents to message me telling me their child had dropped out their cushy major and is now pursuing a worthless degree and they’ll be penniless their whole life. Second I already know this will just be fuel to the fire from big headed naysayers who are self convinced of their own intellectual superiority, but you know what? I don’t care anymore, I feel like this needs to be said.

Going in to college I was actually a bio major. Why? Because I loved animals. I told myself I’d go to vet school because this would be the “great compromise” with my parents. I would make money and I’d get to work with something that I thought actually interested me. Most animal jobs are hard menial labor that will tear through your body over time, and being a veterinarian seemed to make perfect sense at the time.  I did fine, but I was so completely uninterested. I remember sitting in the last bio lab of the series frustrated. I came to the realization that I didn’t want to walk in to a white, cold and sterile room just to move on to the next animal like an assembly line. I came to realize this wasn’t where my passion lied. I flipped through four majors (two actually were discontinued while I was transitioning so out those went) until I was content. I started seeking work experience just to see how I’d fare, and soon did well enough where I could financially support myself while still going through school. I was blown away that I could do something that I genuinely had interest in and make enough to pay the bills at the same time.

Now I’m not telling you to change your major or life plans. I literally forced myself to be miserable for years until I realized this was the right choice for me. I then had to scramble to take more than 20 units every quarter in a desperate attempt to catch up. Let me also say that I’m not encouraging you to abandon your law degree or medical school aspirations…. these are great and necessary careers and someone needs to do them. I have many “real life” friends who are doctors, engineers, pharmacists, nurses etc who love their jobs and make great money doing them. My point is its a big world out there, and I can’t help but feel the Asian community could really add some great things to it.

“I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost