In college, you meet many people, all with different majors. There are stereotypes for every major. Some make grandma think you're going to be the next president, and others make grandpa tilt his head and ask "What are you going to do with THAT?" As an English major, I have personally heard every one of these, and finally, present you with my response.
1. "So you're going to be a teacher?"
Sure, some of us want to be teachers, but that's not the only career available to us. SEO marketing, editing, copywriting, publishing, marketing, even stock broking is a possibility with an English degree! If anything an English degree is one of the most versatile degrees.
2. "You're so lucky you have an easy major!"
If you think reading a minimum of 3 hours every night, writing papers every week, and being expected to pull out a beautifully original short story with a few days notice is easy, you can sit right next to me in class. You won't last long.
3. "I hate reading/writing."
Um...okay? Did I ask? I swear every time I tell someone I'm an English major this is their response 90% of the time. Why would you immediately tell someone you hate something they love? Kind of a d*ck move, TBH.
4. "You know how hard it is to make money being an author, right?"
Wow! I had no idea! I didn't even think to research my potential career before choosing a major!
For the record: everything in life is hard. I know the odds of my dreams, and I still want them bad enough to try and reach them.
5. "What are you going to do with that?"
This one is usually from an older friend of my parents in some sort of science or business field. I can do a lot with it, thanks for your judgments disguised as concern though, Tom.
*I don't actually know a Tom, nor has a Tom every said that to me
6. "So you just like read all the time?"
Yes, and I LOVE IT! (Just kidding, I also do a lot of writing and other core classes, like you know, science.)
7. "Can you write/edit my paper for me?"
Now usually I do not mind this if it is coming from friends because they will usually look over mine in return. However, when that's your first response to me telling you my major, I judge you as a person and wonder why you're in college.
8. Hearing people talk about how great Twilight or other popular literature is.
While there are many bestsellers that are great, a lot of them, especially in the young adult category have bad writing, ridiculous plot lines, and boring, underdeveloped characters. So please, I do not want to hear about how you think that Bella and Edward, which meet almost every red flag of an abusive relationship, is "goals!"
9. "My parents would have killed me if I majored in English."
Yikes. Sorry about that. My parents figured that I'm living my own life and the least they can do if help me get an education in order to pursue my dreams.
So next time you meet an English major, a simple "that's cool" will suffice. Or ask us about our favorite books. We LOVE talking about books.
