Major Trouble?

I always dreaded answering the question, "What are you majoring in?". It was because I knew that after I mumbled, "Creative writing," the smirks would start. The rolled eyes, the stifled laughter. "Oh, so what can you do with that?" My all-time favorite was this gem, after I had graduated and was telling a coworker, "So you graduate high school and decided you want to write even though you have no idea what the world is like? You thought you had something to say?"

I have not talked to that person by choice since.

At times I understood the sentiment behind the mocking; I used to join in it. My standard reply was "Wait tables the rest of my life." I probably was a bit too sensitive when my major got mocked, as well. I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't something I loved, after all. I got to read and analyze literature and even though the writing workshops were horribly uncomfortable for me, I enjoyed getting the feedback on what I wrote. So mock my major and you're mocking something that's very near and dear to me. 

In my opinion, it's too soon to say I wasted the time I could have spent earning a more "worthwhile" major. I'm not dead yet, after all. Am I going to write the next great American novel or become a Poet Laureate? I don't know. My life's not even half over yet. We'll see what I come up with.

I do remember the first time I told someone outside the family my major and did not get any kind of mocking reaction: 
Time: Last July. Place: The Library (pub). I had been asked out for a birthday drink by one of the guys I played DnD with. We were sitting at the bar, making awkward small talk. He asked the dreaded question, and I can still remember how I framed my answer:

(Me) "It's Creative Writing.
(Him) "Oh." Contemplative silence.
"Go ahead. Laugh. Everyone does."
"No, I wouldn't."
"It's really okay, I won't be offended."
"I wouldn't have much room to laugh. I majored in music."
"Oh." Contemplative silence.

We started dating a while later and we're still together now. At least a very small part of it is due to the fact that he didn't laugh.

Moral of the story: THINK before you MOCK.