I went through three majors in college. When I applied and was accepted, I was a Political Science major. In my second year, I decided to switch to Public Relations, with a minor in Creative Writing. By the end of the second year, I was changing my major again; this time, English. It’s where I should have been from the beginning, but I had stopped myself because I wasn’t sure what I could actually do with an English major. I felt like there was some type of stigma on English majors. People didn’t take them seriously.
And, when I finally became an English major, I realized that I was kind of right. I personally loved being an English major. I loved taking a class centered on Shakespeare, reading books by black authors that I probably wouldn’t have read otherwise, and I got to spend my days doing what I really loved; reading, writing, and editing.
But I also had to spend my days defending what I really loved. And that just wasn’t fun. The amount of conversations I’ve had regarding what I can do with an English major has probably outnumbers the amount of times I’ve told people my name. I want to just direct them to any job posting site where I’ve found hundreds of jobs that require humanities degrees, including English. The world is full of jobs. It’s not all doctors, engineers, and teachers. And even if I wanted to end up being a teacher; who cares?
My ideal, dream job is writing. It always has been, and always will be that. I would love to be a full-time writer. But, since, for now, I can’t do that, I want to be in the editing business. I want to help publish magazines and books and all sorts of print and online material. I love looking over papers and articles and making sure the facts are verified and the grammar and structure is correct. I love nitpicking. It’s a strange hobby to be sure, but I love it.
This isn’t going to be the only post about being an English major I post (obviously since the English major has its own page) so I’ll keep it short and simple.
I am and English major. No, I don’t want to be a teacher. Yes, I plan on getting work with this degree. Thank you, and good day.
Peace.