What Do You Guys Work As?

FrozenNight. What the pineapple are you going to do in fashion. Obviously you're smart and have a medicine major and could easily get a good stable well paid job. When I hear fashion and journalism I think of-no. I know that it's a bullpomegranate field, that it's unstable, and has nothing to do with intelligence.

Fashion??? Are you serious??? I could pineappleing go to JC Penny and paint a butterfly on a shirt and randomly luckily make more money in a fashion career then something your years of school could do. What the pineapple.

I just don't get what a smart guy like you is doing in fashion. It bothers me.

Explanation: Fashion is my passion, and my philosophy in life is that you live your passions. It took me two years of experiences during the first half of my college career to figure this out, when, yes, I started my freshman year thinking I wanted to be an infectious disease researcher. But as I really learned who I was I realized I could never work 80 hour weeks in some underground BSL-4 lab with pathogens that could kill me in a week if my glove ripped open. I'm exceedingly social and love ideas, so becoming a writer is exactly what I want to do. Fashion Journalism is more of a day job type thing, because, while it really is what I want to do since I just love fashion (it's a love I can't describe beyond saying it's what one feels when they KNOW they've found what they want to spend the rest of their life doing), experiencing and observing human culture and contributing to it through my writing is what I want to leave for this world.

So my science background? As I excitedly tell those who ask, the major is really just for fun now. I have a knack and a love for pathogenic organisms, for whatever reason, that, while it doesn't rival that of fashion, is something I just love to study and read about.

Also, fashion has everything to do with intelligence. It's not a field anyone could walk into and be brilliant at. As a related side comment, I categorize intelligence in two ways: technical intelligence ("book smart," if you will; "left brain"), and cultural intelligence ("street smarts;" "right brain"). I've taken mind tests before and have been told I'm dead center, meaning I use both hemispheres of my mind all the time - which makes sense with my majors. The point of me saying all of this is that the fashion world is incredibly right-brained, a section of the brilliant, cultural-intelligence "street smart" world also dominated by other artists and creative types.

tl;dr is that I wouldn't bash any profession; understand that there's a different type of intelligence required to be successful in different careers.

I have a stupid question. How come your Major is the Medical one first and then the Journalism if you want to be a journalist? Do you ever want to work in the Medical field?

Technically I'm double majoring, so I don't see one as first and the other second, just both as equal halves of my academic life. With regards to working in the medical field, I could see myself doing Health & Science Journalism if need be.

Ultimately, for those curious, I suppose that's what I'll eventually be able to do: freelance journalism or whatnot for anything from fashion to disease. It goes to show, then, that the epitome of my aforementioned "current life goal" is to get a "double M.A.," if possible, because there are two M.A. options at Columbia that I'd love: Arts & Culture and Health & Science journalism.

I'm going to assume that the medical is a backup plan in case the journalism thing doesn't work out. Considering that Microbology is an up and coming field, and there's going to be a LOT of jobs for it in the near future it's a good idea.

Again yes and no. I mean, I know I DON'T want to be a researcher or a doctor working in labs. I hate labs. Well not hate. Just would want to visit, not work full time in. Honestly, I could see myself working in Microbiological Journalism, and like you said, it is a big up-and-coming field; I've had science professors telling me from my first week of freshman year that the world needs more science journalists with a science background.

In the end I didn't plan my undergraduate academic career with careers in mind. I chose what I'm doing because that's what I'm interested in, and things have fallen into place beautifully.

Bah. Sorry for the long post. Hope I answered everyone well.