Often times I am asked why I chose English as my major. It’s an interesting question because finally choosing English as my major involved an arduous journey, complete with a life lesson at the end of it.
I started off my college journey as a Music Education major. This was primarily because I honestly didn’t think I could possibly be good at anything else. Plus, once I got to college I learned that music majors are some of the coolest people around. Couple that with the fact that we probably had the heaviest course load out of the entire College of Arts and Sciences and I was drowning in a sea of prestige.
Then I discovered something very important: I could not keep up. The practicing, the long hours sitting in front of a piano trying to learn chord progressions, the sight singing. I realized I was doing myself and my professors a disservice. Simply put, music was not something from which I could make a career. Once I accepted that fact, English fell into my lap. That’s when I made some very important discoveries.
English is remarkably important. Every major and career field can add something significant and necessary to society. But to me, the gifts English as a discipline has to offer are paramount. In fact, most – if not all – other disciplines require a certain level of English skills to be successful. Now, I am still completing my undergraduate degree so my knowledge of the craft is not as complete as I would like but in general, English is split into two basic categories: Literature and Writing.
Literature is so important. Throughout my time as an English Major, I have discovered that written on the thousands upon thousands of pages we have read are critical histories, the very foundations of entertainment, and the origins of so many modern literary ideas. People are still finding new and creative ways to reproduce the plays of Shakespeare. Even the popular HBO series Game of Thrones has loose connections to The Wars of the Roses, those histories having been written, rewritten, and adapted for centuries.
Understanding the literature of any particular place or time period is essential to the understanding of culture of that place or time period. I could go on and on about how Langston Hughes perfectly captured the feelings of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance (circa 1918-1935). Fiction or non-fiction, both play an important role in understanding the evolution of society and interpreting those understandings helps to develop critical thinking and decoding skills.
Writing, though, is beyond crucial. Writing is one of the fundamental methods of communication and the only way that it works is if everyone involved has some level of collective understanding of how it should work. What’s more is that writing is that which brings literature to life. Further still, being able to write well has given us some of the greatest speeches, films and television shows known to man. Understanding the intricacies of writing and rhetoric is what creates the authors, screenwriters, and playwrights that our society continues to produce. From writing grants to writing litigation, understanding composition and being able to compose is all but essential to society.
Those of us who are passionate about this discipline keep it alive. We embrace the cultures of many and strive to keep the art of and interpreting, understanding, and writing alive. My personal dream is to become a writing specialist. I want to learn how to write everything: technical works, novels, poetry, histories, speeches, television, film, litigation, grants, marketing tools – everything. Eventually, I would like to give back to society through the craft and even through teaching these tools to others.
So if you’ve ever been wondering what English is good for, I hope things clear that up a bit for you. Never underestimate someone who has a profound understanding of the intricacies in English. The lesson I learned is this: English is pretty damn cool.
