No matter how much we crib about our subjects or our course, we are always ready to defend it when someone else points a finger at it. Just a few days back a friend of mine posted a picture which basically stated that engineers are the best and art students pretty useless. Now, i am usually pretty mild, but this single post caused me to raise hell, and made me ponder, whether the silent but ever present tension between streams is worth it. Between people who are extremely loyal to their stream, are people who have changed streams, who can truly tell us, whether streams matter.
Every stream has a lot to teach and the hype around change of stream is pretty useless.
“I never thought I’d end up leaving science, and take up Philosophy, a subject I wasn’t even familiar with in 12th. To be honest, I was a bit scared to go for Arts. I had always believed that all streams are important in their own right, and none of them comparable, and after joining Philosophy my belief strengthened. I took a leap of faith and its totally worth it. Science taught me a lot, and i believe Philosophy will too.” Shristi, Miranda House.
Two streams may seem poles apart, but you often find common ground.
“I was a pure science person back in 11th, with Physics being my favourite subject. Eco seemed so boring that I never wanted to pick it up even to see where the syllabus was going until the yearly exams popped up. 12th standard changed everything. Suddenly I started finding economics as interesting as all my other Science subjects. Even though i gave engineering exams, i landed up pursuing Eco honours and now as I’m almost halfway through with my degree, I couldn’t have loved this subject more” Manvi, Kamala Nehru College.
Things get better with time.
“It’s difficult to settle in a stream completely different from what your foundation is built on but with hard work and dedication, I think I’ll be able to fit right in with everyone else. After all it’s never to late to start learning a new thing.” Padmini, College of vocational studies.
You feel left out sometimes.
“It’s annoying when people around me say things like, this is too easy, we studied it in 12th, when I have no clue what’s going on. I am from a science background and when I switched to commerce it was all a little disorientating at first. Certain elements of mathematics do match, but other wise it’s a wholly different area.” Priyanka, KMC.
It all depends on the people, and not the stream.
“When I was in school I considered arts and science students as ‘equals’. I strongly disagreed with my friends who said science was tougher than arts. Then in my first year of college I thought art students are dumb and useless. In my 2nd year I thought it was science students who are dumb and useless. Now moving towards my final year of college I’ve realised, it’s just people who are dumb and useless and not the streams they come from.” Apoorva, Lady Shri Ram
The debate around which stream is better will probably never end. But your career depends on you, so better to choose your own interest then to listen to other people and curse them later.