College students come in their first day expecting to pick a major that will make them the most money and the one they will be the most successful in. Sciences and business are the most commonly sought after paths, while English is generally overlooked as something that is a dead end with no stable career direction. However, that is quite a misconception.
English is one of the many majors that often gets caught and lost in between other areas of studies like Economics and Environmental Studies. It's hard when your adviser thrusts a list of 30+ options at you, knowing, of course, that you will eventually make the right decision because this is your life we’re talking about—and forget the fact that four months ago you had to raise your hand to get permission to go to the bathroom. So now you want me to blindly fill out whether I want a B.A. or B.S. in a major I don’t even know the definition of? Place a big red check next to a B.A. in Osteology, because they study rocks, right? That seems reasonable.
When we are deciding our life paths, we are attracted to something that seems reliable and a surety, but in those first years of truly finding yourself and finally being independent, you can actually lose yourself by choosing something that seems logical over something you are actually passionate about. Personally, I came into college as a Biology major because in high school I was great at science and that was my highest category on my ACT. I changed my mind multiple times, from B.S. to B.A.,and from Archaeology to Psychology and back to Archaeology again. I tried to stick it out because I thought I was being stubborn and dense, which then lead me to choosing something I would not tire of—English—and now I’m finally content.
Being an English major is more of a vocation than a career; you do not need to separate your work from home, and you can bring it everywhere with you and enlighten people along the way. It radiates throughout your life. You can start a book club and actually have the desire to want to read the book instead of just gossiping over wine with girlfriends and eventually dropping some hot names during a cocktail party. “Yes, I’ve read James Joyce and Fyodor Dostoevsky. What is your take on his stance regarding the social and political struggles of the Russian world?” It’s a major where, yes, we do a lot of reading and writing, but also we have to question our preconceived notions of what we have been told time and time again that just creates fact inside our minds. Your head will hurt as your brain pounds against your skull telling you to "knock it off" as you try to find symbolism in everything you see.
English majors have that association that we sit in dark coffee shops, reading dense Romantic literature by an author we can’t pronounce with our espressos and dark coffee. Yes, you will love coffee and will eventually read some dense stuff, but it is all worth it in the end as your mind will work in a different way and you will not take for granted the small things that are easily and commonly overlooked. An English major, however, is not just about reading and writing; it enlightens you to a new world full of alternate realities and fairy tales, but also grounds you to this reality, allowing you to open your eyes to new perspectives and be continually searching for the right answers.
Terry Eagleton mentions that English is not only a major dedicated to educating students about the most well-known and often-studied writers such as Shakespeare and Chaucer, but also to educating students to be able to sympathize for other classes of wealth and illuminate the fact that not only your viewpoint is present or is the only way to view a subject. It is commonly perceived that your personal perspective is the only and right one; this is not only false, but also naive to the fact that other standpoints are present that we have simply never been trained to consider. Being able to have sympathy and compassion due to the fact that you are well-rounded in the practice of acknowledging other viewpoints and have had time to fully comprehend by the way of understanding other’s lifestyles and situations is an expertise. Besides the fact that other perspectives are immanent throughout life, the ability to recognize said perspectives is what English can and will teach you. It will build you a sturdy tool belt full of skills, such as this and more, that other majors can not teach.
Now here’s the lecture you will get once you decide English is the right path for you. “Good luck finding a job.” Thanks for the support. You do know the job market is slim as it is, but your ever-glowing confidence in me rocks. “So what do you do, read?” Yes, I read, as does every other major out there. “You won’t make much money.” Debatable, good sir. You see, I could spit out some fun facts and let you know that an English major is one of the most highly accepted and looked for majors out there, because hey, you can teach me physics and brain surgery, but you can’t teach someone how to look from a different perspective or to be analytical. But that’s neither here nor there.
Being an English major, for me, is a way to be free. There essentially is no “dumb” question or answer, and honestly really no “right” answer—to an extent. As I started my quest into this major it made me realize that I have always had a passion for words and the fact that people, not always writers, are able to put them together in a way that is their own and are capable of conveying such emotion and reason is incredible. My personal connection to words is because in other majors/classes I never had that sentiment you get when something touches you so deeply and has the ability to make you relate on a level that gives you goose bumps and makes your soul shiver. That’s why I knew I wanted to be an English major; I would read something, a book, article, poem, etc., and I would have to physically put it down because I was astonished anyone could transfer such raw emotion from themselves to paper.
Being connected with literature can open up the world to the question “Why?” You will go through life questioning why the sky is blue or why there is symbolism in architecture. Of course, there is a logical reason to why the sky is blue and I’m sure someone can tell you the scientific reason, but the ability to look at something that is overlooked and stated as fact and actually question why it is the way that it is is a skill that English will teach you. In other majors there are finite answers and information, but in English it is infinite. You can question ever aspect of life, ask why, ask why are clichés so popular but yet so aimless, ask why and how something is the way that it is, or how people can view the same thing so differently. Being an English major is having the mindset and drive to want to know why the universe is the way that it is and how that has shaped us as human beings.
As Mark Edmundson identifies what his ideal English major would be, I would not strive far from his definition, “love of language, hunger for life, openness and quest for truth”—but I would go one step further and state that an ideal English major wants the power of humanity. Edmundson suggests that this major is what “becoming a human being” is all about, but the process of understanding and having empathy is what allows this major to be more of a vocation and lifestyle than a paycheck in the end.
