Every family gathering, I (me being someone who doesn't seem to have the most applicable major to getting a “big girl job”) dread catching up with family. This is because the first question about my college major that comes out of anyone’s mouth is typically, “What are you going to do with that?” After I stumble around for a couple minutes with some jumbled answer about editing for the local newspaper, they turn to my cousins and siblings who all tend to have normal, practical, and “correct” answers to this question.
My little brother kindly replies “Finance” and in my head and I'm thinking, “Thank God, I can sleep on his couch and it’ll be plush leather!”
However, over the past three years I’ve come to find that maybe I won’t need my brother’s couch.
When choosing my college over three years ago, I knew that UNCW was high on my list because creative writing was an actual major instead of just some tiny class you can take for an art credit during your freshman year. I instantly fell in love with the program and how things were run because it has a more relaxed yet firm atmosphere that beat my academically strenuous high school experience.
I promise I do not spend all day writing poems on a beanbag chair with black coffee in my hand like that girl in "The Breakfast Club". (Although, the best poem I’ve ever written is aptly entitled “Ode to Ketchup” and it will make millions some day.)
I’ve come to find that the creative writing and publishing world has a plethora of opportunities just waiting to be taken on. I spend my days in Kenan Hall in the Publishing Laboratory because I instantly became in love with the idea of using InDesign to create a book. Sure, it’s tedious trying to place each piece intricately where it should go on a page and you have to check every line to ensure words haven’t been cut off, but to me it’s like a puzzle and each piece has to fit exactly, perfectly right.
From the writing aspect, I’ve kind of gotten to do some unexpected soul searching on how I write. I went in thinking I could be the next Danielle Steele, romance novelist extraordinaire, and have come out towards the finish line realizing I am pretty good at playing with my humor and snarkiness.
Throughout the program, I’ve read hundreds of books. Some books that I’ve loved and some books that I’ve hated. Books like I Capture the Castle and Swamplandia! Books that I would never myself actually pick up, but end up being classics on my bookshelf that I find myself re-reading again and again.
I also found out about just how much research it takes to start writing an actual novel. In my case, the novel that I hope to be my senior thesis. You have to become an expert about every aspect within your book and need facts and minute details so that it shows you know exactly what you’re talking about.
Grammar is so drilled into my head that I physically am compelled to look up any grammar issues that I’m even the teeniest bit uncertain about. I can knock out any kind of paper within a matter of hours because I’ve learned exactly how to write a thesis and make a solid point.
So my answer to, “What are you going to do with that?” is pretty simple: I have the freedom to be creative and do something that I love as my future career.
