In less than three months, I will have officially graduated from college with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Now before you pull out all the jokes about only being skilled in the art of spending hours in the library or teaching grammar to bored elementary schoolers, I want to say that I've never once regretted my choice in major (even those nights where I've had to pull an all-nighter trying to skim through 300 pages and whip out an 18 page analysis essay).

Through many semesters of undergrad English courses and a wonderful British literature abroad program, I've read hundreds of books deemed the "most important works of all time" and constantly had to reevaluate the view the world and the best and worst sides of human nature through exploring themes and wisdom from some of the greatest minds who've ever existed. But now I'm starting to realize, the "real world" doesn't come with a syllabus. Even though I'll always have the words of Shakespeare and Fitzgerald by my side, it's time to start applying these lessons to my own life and starting a fresh, new chapter.

So as I enter into the last few months of my undergrad English major career, I decided to share a few of the books that are guiding me through senior year.

1.) "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

When John Green's latest novel, "Turtles All The Way Down" was released last week, I immediately bolted over to the campus bookstore to snag a copy. I've read all of Green's other young adult books and followed his various Youtube/blogs/multi-media projects since I was in middle school. Although there are times when I wonder if I've outgrown these stories of teenage angst and wild road trips, the books, and their characters, never fail to make me laugh, cry, and just feel connected to the story and its world (even if I'm now way beyond my own drama-filled high school days).

Despite receiving tons of backlash and snarky remarks from the other members of my Lit Mag group about Green's writing being too "pretentious and overrated" when I expressed my love for his works during one of our weekly meetings, I still proudly consider myself a huge John Green fan.

2.) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

I feel like the only English major in the world who has still never read Jane Austen's classic romance novel: "Pride and Prejudice." For years I've heard fellow classmates and friends swoon over the amazing wit and charm of Mr. Darcy and rave over the strong, inspirational Elizabeth Bennett. Yet, even after receiving a GORGEOUS leather-bound copy of "Pride and Prejudice" two Christmases ago from my roommate I still haven't made the time to actually read it. Now as I'm about to leave the world of 18th century required reading lists and Brit Lit seminars behind, I'm feeling like this is definitely one title I need to pull off my shelf.

3.) "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" by Sylvia Plath

As someone who's considered herself a massive Sylvia Plath fan for a few years now, I was shocked to discover that this book existed. For years, I'd heard that Plath's only work of fiction was "The Bell Jar," so I was shocked to stumble upon a copy of this book in the basement of one of my favorite Boston used bookstores. "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" is a collection of 13 of Plath's unpublished short stories and personal journal entries published posthumously by her husband and fellow writer Ted Hughes.

In addition to the quirky and memorable stories themselves, the parts of this collection that I found the most moving were the chapters where Plath wrote about her own desire and struggles to be a "great fiction writer" and create prose as strong and memorable as easily as she does poetry. Like many other's, I've always considered Sylvia Plath primarily as a "great poet," so I was surprised to hear how much she admired other authors like Virginia Woolf and deeply wished that one day she would be able to produce something as great as all the novels she enjoyed. As a fellow writer, I connected greatly with Plath's reflections on the power and beauty behind a well -crafted sentence or a memorable cast of characters. I hope she somehow is able to know how much her own creativity and writing has touched so many different people as well.

4.) "Matilda" by Roald Dahl

Long before Rory Gilmore and even Hermione Granger, Matilda was my first bookworm role model. I was captivated by her strength to continue learning and using her magnificent mind despite the countless bullies that tried to bring her down and make her feel small. Matilda's persistence combined with Dahl's magical world taught me that reading books could make you feel powerful.

5.) "Dear Genius" by Ursula Nordstrom

During a coffee meeting at my summer internship last summer, one of the company's top editor's recommended that if I really was interested in a publishing career that I should immediately go get a copy of Ursula Nordstrom's "Dear Genius." The legendary director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls for more than 30 years, Nordstrom was the person responsible for publishing such beloved classics as "Goodnight Moon," "Charlotte's Web," "Where the Wild Things Are," "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and "The Giving Tree." In "Dear Genius," she pulls together a huge collection of personal and professional correspondence of all the steps involved in creating and introducing some of the world's most iconic children's books into the world.

At the end of my internship meeting, this editor who was advising me and told me if I read this book and thought to myself "Yes, this is what I want to do" then I would know for sure that I was cut out for a publishing career. Of course, I ordered a copy from Amazon that very same night, and I hope that its wisdom will help reassure me that I'm on the right path.

6.) "Franny and Zooey" by J.D. Salinger

Salinger's "Franny and Zooey" has sat firmly at the top of my favorite-books-of-all-time list ever since I first read it at 15-years-old. The story of Franny Glass's mental breakdown and quest for spiritual enlightenment told through Salinger's beautiful, brutally honest prose has stuck with me for years and I've found myself returning to my favorite sections in my worn out paperback anytime I've found myself feeling just as lost and fed up with the inauthentic, exaughsting college atmosphere as the Glass siblings.

As I started my most recent re-read this August, I was struck with the realization that finally, I was older than Franny Glass. All of a sudden I could no longer look up to this terrified 20-year-old theatre student and English major lying on the floor of a restaurant bathroom.

At 21 I've made it through many of my own Salinger-worthy crises but I've made it out and I never gave up on my own college dreams. Now it's time for me to continue to the next page in my own story.