What you feel is irrelevant. What a structural engineer thinks is what is important, both from the perspective of whether or not your roof will fall in on you, and from the fact that you will need his signature on a plan for the permit.

Load bearing walls transfer weight through the floor to another load bearing structure under the floor.

As a general rule, walls parallel to floor/ceiling joists are not load bearing. If a joist is directly above a wall, the wall could be carrying a load through the floor to structure below.

Architect/engineer needs to determine the situation.

Thank you for the replies.

VThokie09:

What is the depth and span of your second story floor joists? If you look this up, you may find you have no interior load bearing walls.

Trebruchet:

Its a 2x12 engineered wood i-beam that spans about 28 feet.

VThokie09:

Google the TJI Span Tables and download them. I did, and at 24" on center, it looks like you're not going to make it unsupported.

Trebruchet

Youre right, and it actually is 24" on center spacing. There is another perpendicular wall that the joist sits on about 20 feet from one of the exterior walls and 8 feet from the other.