When people ask me about school and what my major is, 99% of the time, I’m met with dropped jaws and looks of pure pity when I say I’m an English major.

That initial shock is usually followed by “Oh... well, what do you want to do with that?” And while I’m getting used to this reaction, I’m here today on behalf of all the English majors out there to say stop judging me and pitying me when I say that I’m an English major.

I understand fully that being an English major puts a huge limit on the job pool I’ll have when I graduate; if I didn’t then honestly, there are other things you should pity. I know you don’t ask a business or nursing major what they want to do after graduation with the same condescending undertone you ask me with. I know I can study something that will allow me more instant success in the adult world. I know that a liberal arts degree is not as useful now a-days as an engineering degree or going to medical or law school. I know all of this, I can assure you I was aware before I declared my major.

But I can also assure you when I graduate, no matter what I end up doing, I am going to be 100% happier than if I had chosen a different major because I spent the last four years of my life studying what I am passionate about. I picked English because I love books and reading and literature and writing. I love going to Barnes and Nobel and being assigned essays excites me more than a kid roaming free in a candy shop. I love being called an English nerd, I love that my friends have videos of me crying because I love rhetorical analysis so much. I love that in all of my classes I get to do what I am passionate about. I love how I don’t have to spend three days a week in a math or anatomy class for four years.

So stop pitying me and my future, because right now, I am happy. I picked what I love and I’m happier because of it. Stop judging me because I’m not going to get as good of a job as your economics major child. I’m not attending college to please you. I’m here for me. And next time you ask an English major what they want to do after graduation, don't ask out of pity, ask so that you can hear someone who is so passionate about English talk about what they love the most. I bet your economics major can’t speak as passionately about the stock market as we can about analyzing a novel.