What’s it really like being an English major?

I’m an English major. Think of that what you will. What it mostly means to me is that I’m super in love with books and anything related to them. Over the course of my year and a half at Cornell, I’ve gotten a lot of questions relating to my studies, and I thought I’d clarify some of them right here and now.

“OMG you’re an English major? You’re like the first one I’ve met here!”

Yes, I am, and I’m flattered that you decided to point out my essential lack of existence on the Cornell campus.

Do I find other English majors? Well, yes, but we’re all introverts…so we don’t really get to know each other too well.

 “Congrats to you, I couldn’t read all day. I can’t even write good papers.”

I love how this question insinuates that 1. I don’t work nearly as hard as other majors 2. That part of my studies is just writing about stuff you didn’t care to read about in high school and 3. That since I’m an English major I’m instantly great at papers. I’m one of those people who just doesn’t test well, period, so saying that I write papers well is just a huge understatement. But still flattery!

So like what do you want to do with that? Teach?

Again, kind of insinuating that my major is useless and the only thing one CAN do with an English major is teach. English majors have gone on to do lots of things like become lawyers, journalists, publishers, writers, etc. Teaching is just skimming the layer.

“So do you want to be a writer?”

Hells to the yeah! I like to think I have a creative enough mind to become the next JK Rowling. I’ve had a lot of works in mind for a while that I’d love to see published after I graduate.

Can I read some of what you’ve written?

Ummm…*heaving panting* ask me again later, maybe. I’m a little shy about this stuff.  But I love constructive criticism.

What’s your favorite book?

That’s honestly like picking my favorite child. I can’t choose one! Though if I had to choose, it’d be a tie between An Abundance of Katherines  by John Green and Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I know the latter is a play, but these are both works that make me happy whenever I read them, and that’s what matters to me more than picking just ONE favorite out of every book (But I honestly just really love John Green).

Nerd alert: you can tell the signs of an English major AND a Nerdfighter when she preorders the first edition of The Fault in Our Stars signed by one of her favorite authors and it means more than anything else in her 15-year-old life.

Do you have any recommendations for good books?

TONS! It depends on what you’re into though. I have a multitude of books in my collection (aka the floor). Classic literature, romantic literature, plays, young adult lit, children’s lit, even comic books, for Christ’s sake. Just promise that whatever you take, you’ll give it back.

I might as well  keep books as my room decorations at this point.

 What made you want to choose English?

 I’ve been thinking about this since junior year of high school and I just knew that I’ve always wanted to study books. Learn what’s special about them, what books from a particular era made them so popular and remembered. And I wanted the same for myself if I ever published books. I’ve loved reading since I was four years old. I don’t think I’ll ever stop.