By Alison Butz / The Jambar
Once upon a time, a random seven-year-old told my best friend and roommate, Madison Fessler, “Hey! Don’t yuck my yum!” This statement deeply resonates in my soul.
All my life, I dealt with the stereotypes that — because I’m in an advanced math class — I must enjoy math or I am some sort of child genius.
This isn’t always the case. There are some topics in math that I struggled with so badly but got through by studying hard and practicing problems over and over until I eventually understood it.
Now a history major in college, I still deal with stereotypes. People often think I am a boring person or I must really enjoy boring documentaries or books.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional documentary or book about some random obscure event that happened in history. However, there are too many stereotypes about each major, and it annoys me. Why can’t people just let others enjoy something they like?
Along with stereotyping, people love to make you feel like utter trash for liking a specific style of music or for liking a movie. I get it, opinions like to be heard and everything, but can’t we be a little bit nicer in the way we express our thoughts?
Oftentimes, when I am in a conversation with a friend and we’re on the topic of music or TV shows, we come to a disagreement about whatever is our favorite on the topic being discussed. I tend to be very passive with arguments, and half the time, I won’t even voice my opinion.
However, when I do, I try to be as polite about it as possible because I do not want to offend someone because I like something different. For example, one of my all-time favorite movies is “The Martian,” and I am sure there is someone out there who would say, “Oh geez, that’s a horrible movie!”
It wouldn’t settle well with me because it’s a movie that I enjoy solely for personal reasons. It was my dad’s favorite, and I watched it all the time with him. Now that he’s gone, it’s something that reminds me of him in a very positive way.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is we need to stop being so rude to others based on what they like. You don’t need to judge someone’s entire character based on their major, and you don’t need to be so rude to others because of what they like. It is okay to voice our opinions, but do we really need to be so judgemental with it?