An Innocent Question

“Hi, what’s your major?” At first, the phrase seems a friendly thing, no different than “what’s your favorite movie?” Unfortunately, it almost always signals a brief and awkward conversation. Why? Well, my typical response is “bioinformatics” which is actually my simplification of computer science with a bioinformatics emphasis and math minor. The simplification doesn’t help. A boy will usually drift into an awkward silence, and a girl will usually say something like "that sounds so smart" and then begin the awkward silence. The problem with being a girl in a scientific major is the wave of intimidation that seems to precede you wherever you go.