I'm a huge believer in planning. I plan things that don't necessarily need planning. Like, do I need to plan out my outfits a week in advance? No. But, do I do it anyways? Yes, because in my mind it will help me save time in the mornings (and yet, I still always seem to be running late). Being a planner is a big part of my personality, so I have obviously been planning out my career for a while, freshman year of high school to be exact. I took this class called Freshman Seminar (which was basically a study hall with one graded presentation), and in this class we had to do a project about our future career. I decided in this class that I wanted to be an editor for a book publishing company, like Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, ect.

With deciding on my future career at the age of fifteen, I also had to decide what major went with it and that major would be English. After four years of high school and making my decision to go to North Central and over a year of pursuing this major, here I am, an English Writing major with a minor in Organizational Communication.

When picking this major, I never thought that I would have to explain the many options getting a BA in English offers. There seems to be a general understanding that if someone has chosen to major in English, they either want to be a teacher or they want to be a struggling writer, neither of which are true for me.

I swear, if I have this conversation one more time, I'm going to scream:

PERSON: What's your major?

ME: English

PERSON: Oh! So you want to be a teacher.

ME: Ah ha, no, actually.

PERSON: Well, you can't get a real job besides teaching with that major.

And so on. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a teacher. Teachers are obviously necessary, it's just that I would be a terrible teacher. First, for my extreme lack of patience and second for my terrible ability of verbally explaining concepts to people. And third, because that is not what I want to do with my life.

I'm also not planning on being a bestselling author. While that would be nice and the dream job, it's not realistic and I am not willing to set all my hopes fully on that. I want to be a book editor. Yeah, still a difficult gig to get, but I've been working towards it for so long that I know it's what I'm supposed to be doing.

You can do so much more with an English major than people think. You can be a teacher, or a writer, or work in the publishing business. You can also be in advertising, or public relations, or work for law firms, or do something in the business world. A major in English, especially when paired with a minor in organizational communication or business or biology, actually allows you many opportunities because employers like employees who can write well and communicate and think beyond what is directly in front of them.