A Philosopher's Rant II - after taking a breath

It's almost always the first question I'm asked when I tell people that's what I studied in college. Either that, or "where's the nearest exit?" So I'm just going to throw this out there, but you're more than welcome to ask me if you ever meet me in person, it's undoubtedly one of my all-time favorite rants.
I have always been a philosopher. I've always asked questions, much to the consternation and confusion of my parents, about the nature of knowledge. I didn't even know what philosophy actually meant until about 11th grade (I went to a small high school), and once I found out, I suddenly felt a lot less and a whole lot more alone in the world simultaneously. My first class on my first day of college at 8 in the morning was intro to philosophy. The professor talked the entire time about how it was a pointless study and that we should blow off the class, just come in for the exam, and crap out a paper when needed because the course only represented one thirtysecond of our career GPA. I was the only person who showed up for every lecture. I declared my major before the end of the first semester (against the recommendation/ pleading of my academic counselor).
First off, philosophy is my passion, so I don't give a rats ass about what it will or will not do for me after college. I went to college to learn, not to get through one more step in the path of "be born > go to school > get a 'good' job > get married > pop out some kids > die". I loved every single philosophy class I ever took, and I still read philosophy for fun.
Second, philosophy is a self-fulfilling study... if done properly (and it often isn't). If you think about it, philosophy is essentially the analysis of beliefs, and how to rationally convince others of them. My belief is that philosophy is a worthwhile and beneficial study. Studying philosophy taught me how to argue that philsophy was a good thing to study. And it works. Over and over. If there is any concern with the job interviews I do, it is never my major in college. That's taken care of. Done.
Third, I don't want to be a philosophy professor, or a lawyer, or a bum. I just wanted to understand how knowledge is created and formed. That's it. I briefly flirted with the idea that I could become a professor, but they are underpaid, and there are too many of them for the market anyway... that, and it's just not what I want to do.
Fourth, my career of choice (until I start my own business, which will be heavily laden with philosophy) is in advertising/ sales/ consulting (the ethical kind. Yes, it exists). People ask why I didn't go to business school. The answer is because I like my soul. And that I love philosophy. Starting to see the pattern? Besides, that career is all about convincing people of a certain point of view, namely that they should buy my product. Business people eat this up when we get to this part of the interview

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One hundred and twenty sixth, I can't even write a journal entry on my defense of philosophy without sounding philosophical as all hell.
And, finally, I studied philosophy because it is the original study. All academic knowledge has stemmed from it. It's the freaking study of knowledge itself. Philo means knowledge, sophy means the study of. (Reason number one hundred and twenty sixth and a half: I love the greeks, and not just because they gave us wine, but because they asked a bunch of questions that we haven't been able to answer in nearly 3,000 years, and will probably never answer).,br>
In conclusion, for those of you who are still awake, and those of you who haven't broken your computer out of frustration, I studied philosophy because it was what I was born to study. I understand that a lot of people hate philosophers. Nevertheless, (I knew I would work that word in here somewhere) I typically convince those people through philosophical argument as to why they should not hate me. Those people then tend to hate me more, because my argument is philosophically sound. Thank you, whatevergodyoumayormaynotbelievein bless, and now you can all sleep tonight because you finally know why Jesse studied philosophy.