<p>I was thinking of majoring in Art History or English, maybe Journalism or at least working at the newspaper of whatever university I go to, but recently I've been overwhelmingly discouraged from doing all of these majors for practicality's sake. As much as I want to be able to do something creative like write or curate with my post graduate career, I know I will already have college debt and would like to be able to work. </p>
<p>I'm confused. What is someone like me supposed to study in college that will lead me down a real and rewarding career path? Is this a dead end?</p>
<p>There are lots of cool careers and majors that will help you get there, but the problem is that we are not introduced to many careers aside from what you see in your daily life (teacher, doctor) or on TV (lawyer, cop, maybe ad executive). Start talking to people about what they do, how creative their jobs are, etc. Unfortunately, many creative people–even successful art/writing majors–wind up “selling out” to make money, meaning they create art that people want to buy, writing for public relations rather than more creatively, etc. It’s just a reality. I know many music majors who decided to go into a field that paid more, then do music as a hobby, since the majority of music majors wind up teaching to make a living. </p>
<p>Again, I suggest you look around at jobs people have and then figure out what they did to get there. Maybe skill at video editing would allow you to be a journalist in this new age. As a last resort, you might consider a double major in Art History and also something very employable–computer science, actuarial science, accounting, etc.–so you could pursue your passion without quite as much risk.</p>