I chose to be an English major because it was time to declare and I didn’t know what else to do. I knew I wanted to stay away from math and science, and I had always done well in English, so I just sort of settled on it. Not fully understanding what the rest of my time in college would entail, I declared my major in English and went from there. I signed up for classes that seemed interesting, but at the time my main concern was having a convenient schedule, and fulfilling the necessary requirements. Now that I’m a month away from graduation, I have taken the time to look back and think about some of the broader topics we’ve covered and how they have been related and connected from semester to semester, and even class to class.
While it may be a widely dreaded subject on many campuses, I really enjoy all of my classes. Sometimes reading takes me a long time, and I don’t love writing what feels like 20 papers every week, but class time is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. Studying English isn’t really something that you just do on your own because you need to have multiple perspectives to fully appreciate a work, or to fully engage your mind in a literary topic. Class discussions are as, if not more, important as the work we do out of class. I have built relationships with the people in my major classes because of the time we spend together discussing in class, and working together late at night in the library.
English has proven itself to be quite a useful major. It has taught me how to manage my time wisely, how to read effectively, and how to communicate in a meaningful way. Aside from the specified knowledge I have gained from multiple classes, English is a fairly broad area of study and can be applied to the real world in a variety of ways.
My literature classes have taught me the importance of understanding what I’m reading. It’s so easy to skim over the words on a page just to get to the end of a book, but understand what they’re saying is something else. I am able to make connections between themes portrayed throughout literature and real life, as well as societal similarities throughout time and geography. My writing classes have taught me the importance of clarity and communication. Be that through writing comments on someone else’s papers or writing my own, expressing my thoughts so that a wide range of people can understand them is extremely important.
Having such a broad major opens a lot of opportunities for life after graduation as well. Even though I may not want to be an English teacher, I can use the skills that I’ve gained because of my English major for job applications and beyond. Since English is so broad, I feel prepared to apply for jobs that require a lot of human interaction and communication. Besides, what’s more important than reading, understanding, and communicating? So, even though I might get tired of constantly reading and writing, English is a rewarding major, and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!
