Because I'm not an English Major.
That would have been a funny joke if it were true, and a much easier article to write. I do like to tell people I'm majoring in homelessness with a minor in pizza delivery. Sometime's I feel like that would be easier, but alas, I can't change who I am. And what I am is an English major.
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And before you ask, no I'm not planning on being a teacher. Both my parents are teachers and believe me, they want me to be a teacher more then they want my married sister to have a baby. So I'm good thanks. The thing is, it seems to me like most people who ask don't know anything else that an English Major could even possibly do besides becoming a writer, which is considered not a viable option. So what am I doing with degree you might ask? It seems like you and I are asking the same questions.
When I was a kid, me and my sisters all struggled with reading and writing. My parent's were really proactive in trying to help encourage us, so what they did is said that whenever we wanted to play video-games, we would have to read for however long we wanted to play first. Eventually, this lead to me and my older sister getting competitive about who could read more/faster, and then it lead to us actually falling in love with reading. Eventually, they got my youngest sister tested and realized she suffered from a sort of dyslexia that its likely that my father, my sister and I also struggle with. When my Dad talked to my grandmother about this discovery, her response was, "We knew that you always had trouble with it, but we just thought you were an idiot." My family have now lovingly given my dad the nickname "the family idiot."
Though I had some trouble when I was young, these issues couldn't hamper my love to create. When I started to read, I loved being able to imagine myself within stories and the worlds they created. Because I had such a big imagination, I would make up my own friends sometimes, and found it difficult to pay attention in class when I could just live inside my head instead. It didn't take me long to start creating my own worlds and characters, which I would draw across my notebooks, some drawings which I still own to this day.
I still struggle with some of the issues that I had as a kid. Grammar and spelling are exceedingly difficult for me, and my handwriting is extremely difficult to read, which prompts many of my teachers to call it "chicken scratch" or "hieroglyphics." My friends like to poke fun at me sometimes, and it's hard for me to blame them. An English major who can't spell? That's hilarious. But it still made me feel like I'm not worthy of pursuing a field which I knew so many people who are much better at it then I am.
I became an English Major because I love how within the English language is the capability to create. With words, any story is possible, anything can be described and then inscribed onto a page. It is no longer a desire for me to share the stories that are trapped inside me, instead it has become a necessity. This doesn't mean it has been easy, as embarrassingly the first English class that I ever took on my freshman year of college was the only class I have failed so far. This left me really disheartened, and made me question whether or not this was something I really wanted to or was able to pursue. Even when I was being asked to join The Odyssey community, my mom said jokingly, "Why would they want you to write if they knew you failed that English Class?" Thanks Mom, I love you too.
But regardless, I've come to realize that It doesn't really matter if i am a "good" at being an English major or not. That's not why I chose this major. I chose it because I knew I wanted to be better. And by this I didn't only mean a better student and writer, but I knew this was something that would undoubtedly make me into a better person. So maybe I'm not as bad at being an English major as I thought. I have accepted my limitations, I have seen my flaws, and yet I am pursuing what I want regardless. I will keep working at it and continue to learn through my many, many mistakes. I know that, no matter what anyone else says, I should be proud of the work I do, because I am in love with doing it.
