The Woes of Being an English Major

Way back in November when I applied to UVM (Early Action) I marked off English as my desired major. Now the reasoning behind this was as follows.

1.) I thought it was best to declare a major rather than go undecided.
2.) My talents in high school were mostly limited to being better at English than anything else.

Well now that I am one I begin to notice a strange social phenomenon. People don't really like/understand English majors.

Let me show you a common conversations English majors have.

Person: So, what is your major?
Me: Well you see it is...English
Person: Errr...English...cool. What do you want to do? Teach?
Me: No
Person: Oh cool...

Then we sip our drinks awkwardly and walk away.

People always just assume English majors want to teach. And that is indeed what we seem to be doomed to do. But far be it from me to try and defend my major by mentioning all the job opportunities available to me in the world of business, politics, law, as well as plenty more. At that point you are asked "Why didn't you just become a business major then."

There are even people who detest English majors with a passion. We seem to be the punching bags of the college world to these people. What I have noticed is that the people who do this are often on the track of getting a degree in some science or math. It seems to them that there is nothing in the world more important or useful than the science that they choose to study. Even if you agree that science/math is important in the world they refuse to accept that studying English has any sort of influence on the world at all.

Why does it have to be a fucking debate? Both English and Math are important. I guess they may be right though. Studying literature probably doesn't help advance the world much at all. I guess it is more a personal thing. I think you can learn more about yourself if you are constantly questioning universal themes and reading. Maybe I'm just selfish.

All you non-English majors probably don't know where I am coming from. In fact you may feel the same way about me as these math/science people. But hey at least English majors are a tad more useful than Philosophy and Political Science majors (haha fucking losers). In fact maybe I'm growing more attached to my major because I always am on the defense. Oh and if you must know I'm looking to go to Law School, probably, maybe.

But I think you all should know that I am very happy as an English major and enjoy all the English classes I take very much. Even if I am doomed to a life of living on the streets burning my degree for warmth.