The two most common questions that English majors get asked are: how do you expect to make any money and do you want to teach? Well, to answer the first question, the average starting salary for an English major is $45,000, so you can take your calculator and shove it. Now, the second question is what splits English majors in half. The ones who want to teach and the ones who have zero interest in shaping the minds of today's youth.

While I have the upmost respect for everybody who decides to go down that path, it's just something I don't want to do. Once I explain to family members, friends, third cousins and the cashier at Target, that I don't want to teach, they look at me like I have two heads. In many people's minds, English major is synonymous to teacher, and they don't understand the abundance of careers we can go into.

When I first told my parents I declared my major as English, they were understandably concerned. This nation places such high importance on STEM related jobs (heck, my college is one of the biggest research universities in the country) that the humanities are often looked down as less than. As lovely as I look in a white lab coat and goggles, being a scientist just isn't part of my plan.

Majoring in English opens up so many doors to other careers. Non-education English majors are experts at communicating their thoughts and ideas (all thanks to the hundreds of thesis essays) which makes us desirable to companies. They want to sell either an item or an idea to consumers, and English majors have the skills to successfully do that. Besides education, English majors have been known to score jobs in media, journalism, publishing, copywriting, copyediting, public relations and that's only scraping the surface.

So, next time somebody gives you a problem about being a non-education English major, show them this article and your kick ass 30-page essay on "Oedipus the King."