I don't get it. Well, actually, I do get it, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I guess there's a sort of Ceremony of Shame that every English major has to go through in order to fully accept the fact that they are just that: English majors.
This Ceremony of Shame can happen in the most common of places: at the dinner table, out with friends, at a holiday party, or even in casual conversation in the middle of class.
"What are you majoring in?" "English." "So...what are you gonna do with that?"
Cue the shame.
Being an English major might not be the most practical thing in the world for some people. When asked 'what I was going to do with an English major,' usually my quick and sarcastic answer is something along the lines of "starve."
Yes, engineers and doctors and professors make a lot more money than the English major who graduated top of his class. This is nothing really new. The engineer has a direct career path ahead of them; he knows exactly what is expected of him and everything has a clear, defined answer or solution. As for the English major, well, he has choices. What can he do? Write a screenplay? Freelance? Become a journalist? Write for TV? The possibilities are endless, it seems, when it comes down to presenting someone with a major in English.
"English majors are useless" tends to be the following argument that crops up after you've told the person what your major is (they'll probably say it a lot nicer than that, though). Well, not necessarily. Plenty of writers and philosophers have gone on to turn the world upside down. Where would we be if not for Sophocles or Aristotle, Orwell or Wilde? Who else would write controversial or groundbreaking works, works that capture and define the history of a country or of a world? The doctor with a Ph.D?
And it's not like once you're an English major, you're automatically tracked to becoming that lone writer who sits late nights at the dingy little pub in town with a notebook for scribbles. You can go into law or management, even social work. You can work with music or films. You're not just prescribed to one career path: writer.
I'm an English major not because it's a "good" major or that it has the "perfect" career opportunities that will make me "successful" in life. I'm an English major because I love what I do. And if that means a future paved with uncertainty after uncertainty, then bring it on.
Are you (a) aspiring to be an English major or (b) already an English major? Are you proud of it? I know I am.
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