The trials and tribulations of an English major
Jennifer Ashbaugh, Staff Writer
A natural conversation starter for college students is, "So what’s your major?" My response, "English" seems to dictate an automatic reply from the questioner, "How interesting. Do you plan on teaching?" Where did this assumption come from? And why are English majors seen as spacey, Thoreau-like characters that gaze at trees and make comments like: My soul is represented in the leaves illuminated by the sun. Way off base!
A degree in English does more than qualify you for sitting in a room of horny high-school students, trying to force poetry down their gagging throats. English should be understood as a major that opens door to careers in the business world rather than leading to a high school parking sticker. In English classes, yes, we read. We write papers; we have interesting conversations linking the metaphor of blindness in "King Lear" to "Oedipus Rex." Being an English major is fun! Small class sizes and excellent faculty! (If interested, contact Dr. Holly Laird.)
The point is- I do what I love, which is supposed to be the point of living in America. Was I absent the day everyone else found out that the only way to make money is to live in BAH? I don’t want to "suffer" through macro or marketing, but that does not mean that I am unqualified to accept a job in the business world. We go on to become lawyers and policy makers as well as technical writers and, yes, admittedly, teachers. I just want to add here that teaching is a fine profession and I think that we should invest more money in public education. Regardless, I don’t feel that my major is only useful in the realm of education. My mom assures me that the woman who runs Williams web site is an English major because they needed someone to make the pages understandable to the average human brain.
A degree from the College of Arts and Sciences is not a worthless degree. Too often people see us as learning obsolete dates of historic battles or researching Shakespeare’s influence on theater and fail to comprehend how these skills translate into a job in the real world. Yet there are wider lessons being learned here. We are taught to analyze, to research, to express ideas clearly and concisely. These are marketable traits. What I learn in class is applicable to the "real" world, should I choose to find a job there.
I will say that I would feel limited if I majored in business. It seems too easy. I have this inner conviction that, yes, I could join the dark side and work behind a desk from 8-5 crunching numbers and finding new ways to manipulate people into spending their money. Anyone could become a business major. My inner conviction also tells me that I was called to a higher purpose.
I haven’t yet nailed down firm plans as to what I will do after college. Since this article was supposed to detail what exactly one does with a degree from the College of Arts and Sciences, it is a massive failure. It fails because there is no one thing for which an English major is specifically qualified. We are amazing, highly educated and qualified to do anything (except balance checkbooks). I like the freedom that being an English major gives me. One day I make plans to be a social activist, while other days I feel that my time would be better spent in a quieter lifestyle. Admittedly, I might need a little training where I suddenly to jump into, say, accounting. Yet what my degree says about me is: Hey! I think! I am a rational creature! I am trainable!
So the next time someone says, "I’m majoring in English," let your imagination go. True, he or she might dream of being a high school junior English teacher- if so pray for that person. However, he or she might become a writer for The New York Times or an editor for a law journal. He or she could work at one of the largest corporations in the world or fight in Washington for the rights of children. So be amazed. And if anyone wants to share their doughnuts when finals come around, we’d take that as a sign of appreciation.
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