I Tried to Be an English Major

Please notice the word “tried” in the title. This should give you a clue that I was not successful. Oh, I didn’t fail or anything as horrible as that; actually I did quite well and probably would have earned high marks and graduated with honors had I continued down the road of the English major. The problem was I hated that road. Hated it.

You may be wondering how someone who hated English could end up as an editor. Well, “hated English” isn’t really accurate. I enjoy reading and writing and editing. I even enjoy reading about reading and writing and editing. I’m not so crazy about writing about what I just read—unless I absolutely loved it—and I’m really not crazy about sitting around talking about what I just read—again, unless I loved it. My two-semester career as an English major was nothing but talking and writing about things I’d read, none of which I loved. The classes (except Brit Lit II, taught by a fun, down-to-earth woman whose name I have unfortunately forgotten) were boring and I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Imagine my frustration, to realize my major wasn’t right for me—again. I had already switched majors—and colleges—after a similar two-semester career as a biology major. Academically, I had hit the wall. I decided to put the whole college thing aside for a while, which turned out to be the first intelligent thing I did in my life. For the next ten years I worked in one stinky job (raising rats and mice) and one awesome job (landscaping), read a lot, and tried to write when I felt inspired (in other words, not very often).

Finally I was ready to go back to school. This time I knew I wanted to write and edit, preferably about cool stuff like archaeology, history and the earth sciences. I never even considered trying to be an English major. Instead, I ended up as an ancient studies major with a writing minor—another intelligent move. I grew as a writer, I was never bored, I learned things I may never use again—but you never know. Most importantly, I ended up working with words, which is where my talent has always been.

I guess you could say I took the scenic route to editing. How appropriate—I never have liked highways!