I Have a Newfound Respect for English Majors

If you can master the language, you can master the world.

In my college years (as it still is today), the choice of a major was a significant and impactful decision. Choose correctly and the world would open up for you in ways you could only imagine. Job opportunities would come your way almost out of thin air. You would be in high demand. All of those engineers, IT gurus, and higher level medical professionals would be writing their own ticket throughout their careers.

Choose incorrectly and, well — you could always work your way up to assistant manager or even, dare to dream, manager of a thriving fast food enterprise. Your credentials were only slightly better than those of the three high school graduates standing next to you in the line to apply for whatever knick-knack position you were seeking just to get “something on your resume.”

And so, thinking I had an inside track on choosing a major that would catapult me into the corporate world, I turned my back on those areas of education that interested me the most — English Writing, Foreign Languages and assorted other more liberal arts types of studies.

No, I would be the wise one. I didn’t consider myself to be particularly inclined to pursue mathematical or hard science types of subjects, so I chose what I deemed to be another excellent choice — Psychology.

I enjoyed boasting that I was a “Psych major.” I was impressing the heck out of myself. In my mind, my pursuit was every bit as valid as that of my chemical engineering friends.

And certainly, much, much more valid than that of those who chose something as mundane and unimpressive as — “Gasp” — being an english major!

Well, graduation time came along and I found myself much less in demand than my wildest fantasies may have laid out for me.

Oh, I did land a job within weeks of graduation. It was an entry level type of job that plunged me into corporate America and the chance to do well enough in life. I’ll never complain excessively about what I could have, would have and should have done instead (although, one of the biggest lessons life has taught me is that I am much more capable than I thought in my teenage years. I could have taken on any of those hard science fields and come out okay).

Oh, and another thing life has taught me — English majors rock!

Command of the spoken and/or written word is the key to a vast array of doors in life.

If you can read it, you can learn it.

If you can learn it, you can share it.

If you can share it, people will come knocking down your door for the knowledge and expertise you have acquired.

If you enjoyed this article, perhaps you would like to check out a few of my other thoughts on living and growing in a rich, full, vital life.