Being an English major is something that a lot of people consider to be "the easy way out," and to be honest, that is really annoying. While other people are cramming their minds with the human anatomy or with boring business textbooks, we are writing papers absolutely non-stop, reading and re-reading novels, and over-analyzing every single word. Being an English major is truly an under-appreciated feat, and unfortunately, no one realizes that but us. We brave various struggles on a daily basis, and here are a few of the worst.
People always want you to proofread their papers.
While I don’t mind, it’s sometimes annoying that people automatically assume that we love to revise their papers. We do have our own papers to write, guys.
Correct comma placement gives you life.
There is absolutely nothing better than reading someone’s paper that has all of the commas that it needs. Although, it can be pretty invigorating to proofread someone's paper that needs a lot of commas. We English majors are here to help.
“What exactly are you planning on doing with that major?”
This is usually said in a condescending manner, as if their engineering major automatically makes them a better person than us. This question, and the thousands of times that we are asked it, gives us an alliance with the art majors and the history majors, as they also receive this question frequently. Together we are stronger and can take out the condescending major-shamers.
People assume that it’s the easy way out, or just a temporary thing until you find something "better."
“Yeah, I put down English on my application because I couldn’t think of anything else, but then I changed it once I got here.” Yeah, well, that’s not our case.
People automatically assume that you have read every book and know every author by name.
When I tell people that I am an English major this frequently sparks a debate about literature and a conversation on their favorite books. While this is very enjoyable, it almost feels as though they expect us to have read every book that has ever been published, as if this is an unspoken prerequisite for being an English major. That's not the case, sir.
There are so many papers.
Countless hours have been spent behind the screen of a computer, or crouching over a notebook, pen in hand and writing vigorously. When you take a non-English course and are assigned a paper, your peers complain, but you thank your lucky stars that it is only a seven page paper so that you can focus on the 20-page one that's due next week.
There are so many chapters.
Lit classes are a lot of fun and, typically, they’re very interesting. However, being expected to occasionally read a book in a week while taking five other demanding classes is a one way ticket to the struggle bus.
You’re expected to be a spelling champ.
I’ve never been a wonderful speller (thank you spell check), but my friends constantly turn to me when they need help spelling words, regardless of if it's an everyday word or an obscure nursing term that is beyond my level of expertise. Your guess is as good as mine, bud.
You cannot stomach liking or sharing a social media post that has incorrect grammar.
No matter how much you love a post and would love to share it with your friends, it’s impossible to get over the fact that they spelled “definitely” wrong. On a side note, why do so many people misspell that word? It's awful!
Re-reading something that you wrote a while ago is less than spectacular.
Every once in awhile you venture into the archives and dust off a couple of your oldies-but-goodies, whether it is to refresh your memory on something that you wrote a while ago and need to remember, or just for kicks and giggles. In doing this, however, you venture into an uncharted territory, the territory of mistakes past, and it hurts. Why did you omit the serial comma there? Shame on past you.
You love your major even when no one else can fathom it.
Let’s face it, if we didn’t love to read and to write then we wouldn’t stay in this major, because it usually doesn’t pay too well when we’re done. Even though there’s a lot of work and a lot of judgement from others at times, it’s still great. We get to do what we love and it’s awesome. There aren’t too many people that can honestly say that and we are lucky to be the few.
