When you major in English—or any of the liberal arts, really—you get used to a certain amount of teasing, good-natured or not. Between your parents asking you what you’re planning to do with your life and random strangers asking how you plan to make a living wage, sometimes it can all get to be a bit much. How many times have you had to answer this question:
“So, are you going to teach high-school English?”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Teaching English at any level is a noble profession—heck, teaching in and of itself is undoubtedly one of the most important vocations in the world—but not everyone with a B.A. in English automatically goes into the classroom. Some of us do wind up in high-school classes, trying to encourage the next generation to fall in love with the wonderful world of literary studies, but many of us don’t—and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Many people look at this lack of set-in-stone career paths as a negative thing, but it doesn’t have to be. English majors come from all sorts of different backgrounds, but one characteristic that we often share is our wide range of interests. English offers a lot of flexibility, which is something that very much appeals to those of us who major in it. We get to delve into literary theory and criticism. We get to workshop pieces ranging from poetry and short fiction to creative nonfiction. We blog. We edit. We write. We work with social media and technical writing and everything in between.
As students of the written word, our job for four or so years is to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, to imagine others complexly, and to do so with some semblance of grace. We practice deep thinking and compassion on a daily basis as we read stories from around the world and all throughout history. When we then put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard—we exercise and polish our voices to make ourselves heard in an ever-changing world.
These are the skills that we English students develop and hone semester after semester. These are the skills that enable us to wear so many hats. Many of us go into law school or medical school. Others of us study comics or Chaucer or linguistics. Still others of us go into the corporate world, armed with killer communications skills. The possibilities are endless.
So, the next time someone asks you if you’re prepared for a career at Starbucks, remind them of two things: first of all, that all work is valuable, regardless of how much money you earn from it, and secondly, that your tool belt is filled with language comprehension, composition, critical thinking, and textual analysis. You’ll be fine.
Actually, no, you won’t be fine: no matter where you go or what you do—no matter how much money you make along the way—you will be amazing.
