“So, what’s your major?” I’m sure you’ve heard this question from every relative, friend, acquaintance, potential employer… basically anyone you ever come into contact with. It is the most basic question to ask a college student, and maybe one of the most frustrating to answer. For some of you, I bet you have no problem giving an excited, confident answer. Maybe you’re a part of a major that doesn’t have such a negative stigma about whether or not you’ll have a career at the end of these four years. For me, as your local English major, this is simply not the case. “Oh, an English major? So you want to teach?” “Oh, an English major? What are you going to do with a degree in reading?” “Oh, an English major? Why don’t you choose a path with money, like business or law?” Yes, I’ve heard all of these, and yes, I’m over it. It’s time to break the stigma, so here’s why I think everyone should be an English major.

During my senior year of high school, I had an amazing and inspirational teacher who told me something about the subject that I will never forget: literature is both timely and timeless. When she first told me this, it didn’t mean much to me. I wasn’t sure why that was important, and I wasn’t even sure I really believed her. How could Shakespeare still matter today? Wasn’t he from, like, a million years ago? That year, we read a lot of greats, and I found out how wrong I had been. We read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which seems like a satirical story about classism and marriage in the time period, but still plays into the social hierarchy of our world today. We read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, which deals with race and identity, something our nation is still definitely struggling with. I quickly learned what it meant to pick up a novel from centuries ago, but still feel a personal connection with it today. This feeling was something I was never ready to give up, which lead me to make my decision to pursue a career with an English degree.

In addition to the satisfaction that comes from reading and learning about all types of literature, my writing skills have seriously developed. I went from writing C- at best essays in high school to A- at worst essays in college. I bet you’re wondering how an analytical essay on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist will help me get a career that pays some value money, and I promise you, when I was writing it, I was wondering the same thing. What I didn’t know then was how important writing and communicating skills truly are. What is the point of developing the new iPhone or finding the cure to a disease if you can’t write it out in a way that will explain and appeal to a wide range of people? I feel very lucky to have writing as both an art form and a platform for strong communication.

Whether or not you choose to spend your short four years of college as an English major, my one request is that you take an English class or two. Try and engage yourself with some classic novels and immerse yourself in the world of Vonnegut, Tolstoy, and Christie. Write a page or so everyday and make sure you push yourself to learn to love the subject. Mostly, just try and understand why we English majors don’t just do it as an easy way to graduate in four years, but we do it because we love it. I challenge you to love it, too.