I am a Science major, and I am here to tell you that it is a good idea to be taking an English class every semester. The main reason is that it will help you with other classes. I have taken so many different English classes during my time in college, and I have been able to incorporate each class into my other classes whether it's my major or my other electives.

As a Freshman, I took History of the English Language. This course explored the origin of the language, and it felt pretty similar to my Latin class that I took in high school. It also explored the mechanics of how people talked. During the semester, I was assigned a project for the course, and it is still my favorite project to this day. I went home one weekend to record some conversations with my friends, and I came back to school and wrote down every word, pause, laugh, yes I had to write down everything. After making the script, I had to analyze the conversations, and I chose to focus on gender. What I loved most about the project is that it helped me understand my friends better. And in a way that is part of my major. Psychology focuses heavily on people.

I'll be brief with this one. Writing classes are important. It will help you with papers for your other classes. But just know, it doesn't have to be Creative Writing if that's not what you're into. Don't take a class where you'll be writing poems if you're not excited about it. If you go to a school that offers English as a major, you'll have several options for writing courses. The one I took focused on responding to essays, and documents. I found it very helpful when writing research proposals, and papers for my major.

Although these classes have been helpful, I found that Literature has been my favorite. All of my English classes in high school were Literature. In my classes, I analyzed stuff to my heart's content. A lot of people I know hated it. I'm a horrible test taker, and papers have always saved my grade. Meanwhile, everyone else preferred the tests. When I found how satisfying analyzing stories and novels in papers, I fell in love with Literature. The past few semesters, I haven't been able to find an English class that I truly enjoyed. I noticed my stress levels increase, and I was losing interest in a lot of my classes. Last semester, I finished my first two days of classes completely overwhelmed. I didn't like any of my classes, and there was no balance. I did find a class for my mental health, but it wasn't English. I started to think that I didn't need an English class. I had this other class, and I write Odyssey articles every week, so I figured I was okay.

This semester, I was able to pick up a literature class, but I wasn't excited about it. I was a 100 level class, I just needed something to fit my schedule. I had very low expectations for my classes after last semester. During my second day of class, the course consisted of a discussion analyzing a story we were assigned the night before. As we analyzed, I began to feel a thrill. I forgot how much I loved Literature, it has definitely been too long. While it will help my other classes, I can easily consider this my mental health class. Getting deeper into readings for the class has given me some kind of release. In high school, I took it for granted. I forgot about the aesthetic of symbolism and getting lost in a story. Going back for the first time in years, I found that it has been a nice escape from the outside world.

Sometimes, we forget about the little things. We often take them for granted. You don't really know what you have until it's gone, or when you have it back.