Whenever I mention to someone that I am an English major, they look at me as if I made the dumbest decision ever.

"What are you going to do with that?"

"Oh, so you want to be a teacher?"

"You know they don't make any money?"

Enough already.

I am tired of hearing the same judgments and comments about my career choice from people who do not even know what I have been studying. In the English degree, I do not just study about Beowulf or Edgar Allen Poe. I learn so much more than that. I study what it is was like during the Jazz Age with Ernest Hemingway and what their lives were like right before the Great Depression. I have learned how to articulate my thoughts and persuade people to understand my ideas. I know how to talk for hundreds of pages and rearrange it so I can summarize it for a page.

I have learned creative writing, non-fiction, technical, business, and commercial writing. English is also not about just writing. It is about analysis.

Everything has a double meaning.

Whether you like to think of it or not. My brain now automatically thinks about the different possibilities and meanings behind a question or a sentence that you have given me. I know it annoys some of my friends, but they do take me for who I am.

I have learned how to communicate with people on different levels and how to properly delegate work. You know many lawyers and some business people actually studied their undergrad in English? Many famous people like Emma Watson, David Franco and Sting have all majored in some form of English track in college!

There is a wide variety on what I can do with my degree; I am excited to see where it takes me. My dream is to work in the editorial field but that does not mean that I will be broke. This degree has prepared me to work in an adaptable environment for a job that I see fit. I could work in social media, communications, literature, higher education, and business, just to name a few. So, quit saying that I am making a mistake.

Quit saying that liberal arts majors are going nowhere and that we are going to be living on the streets or out of a Starbucks. We are changing the world. We are studying culture, and understanding our past in order to create a better future.

I know that the STEM majors are becoming a more popular ideal to lean towards but don't forget the areas that started some very important phenomenon.

So, to the seniors in high school who are debating on what to study in college, think with your heart. If it is something that you truly want to study, then you'll find a career that will fill your heart as well.