I recently received the following email from a student I taught in eighth grade a few years ago. She is at university now.
Hey Mr.R!
Long time no talk. How are you? How’s the family? Hope you’re all doing well. I’m going into my second year now at the University of Waterloo in Canada. I sort of hate it, but I’m learning to deal with it, so I guess that part’s okay. I wanted to ask you for some advice – I’m in a weird place right now. They really don’t prepare you for college in high school… Well, anyway, I’m kind of stuck between wanting to be an English major and struggling with what my odds would look like career-wise, and trying to pick something more “practical” like Psychology and going to med school etc. I’m so confused and it’s so unbelievably frustrating to be debating myself about my entire future… please help!
My response:
Dear…
You find yourself in a familiar spot for anyone who has ever been entranced by the word. For every person who’s been tricked into believing that perhaps a living can be made from prose and metaphor and creation and bliss.
The reality, and I really hate to be the one to tell you– as perhaps I was the one who lit the fire, or at least fanned it early in your life, is that there is nothing practical about literature or writing. It is a dead end road obstructed with angst and pain. Forget about careers and security and normality.
You may be one of the lucky ones who has the tenacity, talent and verve to become an actually writer. A tattered creature scraping by enough money to make what they call a living, but the reality is more likely that you will fill your head with the magic of words and find yourself powerless to exist in a world that seldom values them.
Maybe you will become a teacher who spends her life hoodwinking others into believing that art and beauty and dreams are more a human act that working and careers and money can ever be.
You ask me advice about practicality? I know little about the subject. Follow your heart and what you love, the rest will fall into place. Do what you believe will make you happy. Think of what has always made you happy thus far and stick with that. Do not be led by practicality. There are more than enough people following those pursuits. There is nothing wrong with Med school or psychology, but do it because you love it and you feel you have no other choice. Do not allow your decisions to be made based on what you think you should do. Make them based on what you must do.
Whatever you do, will be the right choice. Life is long and simple and pleasant when you do what you love.
Hope that helps.
Mr. R
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by aroid
Do you have any advice for her? What would you say?
Hi – my name’s David. I’m based in the UK and work as sort-of an educational consultant/project manager. I also blog, write (quasi-research, fiction) and am a musician. I’m an English major (my minor subject was Music).
Every day I write thousands of words, and read many thousands more. I do close textual analysis – I try to understand the words people choose and the reason behind them. I unpick subtle shades of meaning. I research ideas, find links between areas of thought, explain them to others using the relevant language. I make arguments, I try to convince people. I try to resist being convinced by the the power of words alone.
I have at my disposal a range of the greatest tools for analysing text that western civilisation has to offer. When I was choosing my major, the job I am doing didn’t exist. Chances are, the job you will end up doing doesn’t exist now. But there will always be a need for people who understand how to communicate using text, who understand how to make an argument using evidence, research and passion and to respond wisely to the arguments of others.
Do a “practical” major. Do English.
Hello! I’m a former student of Mr. Raisdana. I’m currently based in the US but I’m from Cambridgeshire in the UK and looking almost exclusively at British universities in order to study history and English.
I’ve had to learn to hold my tongue this year–it’s shocking how many people find it perfectly normal to disrespect and insult humanities degrees. So many times I’ve told people I’m applying to university to read history and English only to get so many borderline insulting responses…
“It’s useless!”
“And your parents are okay with it?!”
“You won’t get anywhere with that!”
“So when I next talk to you you’ll ask me ‘Do you want fries with that?’!”
And that’s not even the end of it. I was sat next to a girl in my psychology class (who is studying neuroscience) who spent ten minutes on a tirade about the uselessness about English majors, and I quote: “Who wants to be an expert on George Orwell*? What a waste of your life!”
But guess what? For a lack of a better phrase, I don’t care. Because it’s what I love, and it’s what I want to study. I refuse to spend three/four years of my life as an undergraduate (and more as a postgrad, as I plan) doing something that I don’t love utterly with all my heart. I cannot possibly explain why I want to do history and English, or why I love it. But I do. And that’s all that matters!
When I went to a Rice University open day earlier this year, the Dean of Humanities spoke to the group of us who were interested in a humanities degree. I can only paraphrase his words, but the gist of his speech was that those students who study the humanities are prepared for a vast range of jobs in the future, and have skills that almost every company looks for in employees. No, there’s no job that you’ve been prepped for specifically, but there are a vast amount of jobs that you are qualified for. You are most definitely not limited to being a writer or being an English teacher. Plus, those who study English can go on and go postgraduate studies in law or business (and more, those two are just common examples).
Remember: just because your major doesn’t have a corresponding job does not mean its useless, or that you won’t be employable in the future. In fact, it means the opposite, and you will have more options in the long run. You can always supplement your undergraduate degree if you want to/need to. Above all else, do what you love.
I wish you luck–hopefully in your English degree! 🙂
Julia
*This is such a misrepresentation of what an English degree is about. Smh.
Thanks guys, for reminding us that being an English major need not be some romanticized Mr. Keatingesque experience like I churned out, but rather an important discipline for its own sake. Great advice.
As a College Counsellor I deal with students who are anxious about their future on a regular basis. The number of times students walk in thinking they have to make their minds up about the rest of their lives at 16 is scary. I think there was a time when that was necessary. I think now is not that time.
We live in a world where most people’s degrees have little to nothing to do with what they studied at the tertiary level. People change there jobs all the time now. Usually switching from profession to profession. So my advice to young people is this:
1. Listen to yourself: what do you like? what makes you happy?
2. Identify your strengths.
Decisions once they are based on you and your emotions will be a lot easy to make.
You could be an investment banker on wall street and be completely happy because that is your passion. You could be a investment banker on wall street and be completely miserable because you wanted to always be an actor. (But there’s no money in that. We all know that!)
An English degree, if that’s what you enjoy studying, gives you many skills. You need history- to put it all into context; you need psychology to understand the way the author works and the way the characters work; you need emotions; you need to analyse; you need to question the world around you.
A thinking person is a skill that every employer is looking for.
Nothing is final except death (and that too Hindus and Buddhists believe we come back; Judea-Christian religions believe in Heaven).
There are no turns you can take now that will lead you only to one path: that of an English teacher. (Which is really not such a bad gig; again, if you enjoy working with young people).
Life is full of cross roads and decisions. You may choose one path now and find yourself at a whole other junction that you expected.
My final word of advise? Follow your heart. Be Happy.
please note I do know the difference between there and their. Eek .