First Post

Submitted by Olivia Wood on Wed, 01/16/2013 - 13:12

I chose to major in English mainly because I like to read.  I have always loved literature.  I did not declare my major until the end of my sophmore year of college because I wanted to choose a major that would be viewed by society as "useful," like accounting or speech pathology.  I could not find anything that held my interest as much as English, and I eventually decided to do what I wanted to, and what would make me happier in the long run.  I decided to take this WWI class because I enjoyed reading WWI poetry in British Writers II, and because it gives me the opportunity to learn a bit about history, which is another interest of mine.

Comments

Jeff Drouin

Thu, 01/17/2013 - 09:38

Welcome, Olivia. I'm detecting a theme among some of the contributors here about leaving "useful" majors for the humanities. Perhaps we should have a talk about the humanities and the job market in class one day.

Katie Boul

Thu, 01/17/2013 - 14:52

I feel your pain in regards to the "useful" major problem. As long as I mention that I'm majoring in education in addition to English, people don't generally make any protestations (except perhaps to remind me that I'll be poor for the majority of my life). But if I only mention English, and especially if I include that I'm considering a philosophy minor (apparently the king of useless degrees), the question, "What are you going to do with that?" inevitably arises.