A common misconception exists in the minds of students everywhere: that English Majors have the easiest course load of them all. Sure, we may not use textbooks or calculators, our finals aren't tests, and we don't spend our days computing large numbers. But that doesn't mean that we don't experience our fair share of mid-semester crises.
In fact, the life of an English Major comes with so many daily struggles, that others would probably choose their maths and their sciences over our book-based studies in a heartbeat.
To begin, the dainty paperbacks that we carry around for homework are often wildly misleading; when you have 100+ pages of dense material assigned for each of your classes due the very next day, you're usually forced to cram throughout the early hours of the morning, analyzing text until your eyes cross.
But what could possibly be so hard about reading books? - you might ask. Well when you're an English major, it's almost impossible to read for pure pleasure. There are intricacies, hidden meanings, and important allusions to constantly navigate, and the only way to succeed in this major is to dissect them all.
What's more, is how the meticulous process of thoroughly exploring literature is complicated even further by time period! Whether it's a Shakespearean sonnet or Middle English prose, you have to monitor for important subtleties while translating to modern tongue. The task can be rather daunting!
Of course, reading isn't the only thing that we English Majors do, seeing as how a large part of our semester consists of the research, drafting, writing, and editing of long and articulate papers. So what? I've written papers before and they don't seem that bad. - you might think.
And indeed, maybe you have! But what you have not written, is three drafts of a 25-page colloquia-level paper on a rich concept that requires a dozen properly cited scholarly sources. Evidently, papers of this magnitude require a lot of library time, they take literal months to complete, and you need the power and perseverance to keep up the mental stamina.
The final claim that I'll venture to make is how daunting the future can seem. In a day and age that's rapidly pulling away from books, magazines, and newspapers, many English Majors feel lost or directionless while trying to pave their way to a career.
Thankfully, I chose to take the Teaching Certification route and have nuanced my English studies with a built-in layer of purpose. However, many English Majors aren't so decided, forcing them to face narrowing options and vast competition come the time of senior year. It truly is a cut throat world for those who choose passion over demand.
At the end of the day, each subject comes with unique requirements and hardships. And while my point is not to argue that English is harder and superior to every other major, my point is that studying English is a lot more difficult than it may seem. All the same, English Majors do what they do because they love the beauty of language and the power behind communication; it's how humans have expressed emotion, triumph, and hardship all thorough life, and it is a beautiful thing to dissect. Personally, having the privilege to peer into the souls of others is worth the hard work that I'm asked to invest.
