If you're able to read this, you're not actually "poor"

There’s quite a bit to get pissed off about when scrolling through Facebook updates, but this article really got me: an article about the top ten most “useless” college majors. “Uselessness” was essentially defined by how much – or rather, how little – you’d earn from any job in those fields.

Surprise surprise, English Literature was up there (but surprisingly not the most worthless: that honor went to journalism, my second choice of majors). But what articles like that fail to take into consideration is the motivation for choosing such majors: clearly, you have to be more motivated by passion than money.

Maybe I would be financially better off in an accounting job, or marketing. I’d be richer, but a lot more miserable. Those jobs are a good fit for plenty of people, but I’d be putting my gifts and talents to waste in an environment like that.

Realizing my student loan payments begin in June, and that the only somewhat steady job I’ve had lately is babysitting, articles like that can instantly ruin my day. Consequently, I’ve been thinking a lot about worth and where it comes from: how much of my identity is defined by what I “do,” and how I’m going to weather the judgments of strangers I meet at social gatherings who scoff when I tell them “I’m a writer!” (Which is precisely why I don’t go to many social gatherings).

At one point in my life, I judged people who were “just” waitresses, or “just” Starbucks baristas. “Who would want to be stuck doing that for a living?” I’d wonder. But that was well before I found myself struggling to keep my head afloat in the working world. That was when I still lived at home with my parents and never had to pay for anything myself.

I’ve grown up a bit since then: and I’ve been considerably humbled, since my next day job may very well be – surprise! – Starbucks. At least until book sales pick up. *crosses fingers*

It helps to remember that status and job titles don’t matter a whole lot when I never have to doubt where my next meal is coming from: I make enough to at least have those at my disposal. People in third-world countries aren’t so fortunate. Maybe that’s an extreme comparison, but when the majority of the world lives below the poverty line, it’s a wake-up call. It makes me less likely to complain because I’m a few dollars short of meeting up with a friend for a beer after a long workday. It humbles me to realize that while I may not earn enough book royalties to quit my day job (whatever that will be), I still have the freedom to publish what I want, when I want. That’s a priceless gift right there.

I write these words in hopes that I will convince myself of their truth, and remember my true worth as a daughter of God; someone’s fiancé; a close friend to a handful of really awesome people.