i can't help it if i am a dog person

me rn after studying for my first quiz of the semester and understanding everything in a practical sense but i can't multiple choice for 💩 so i get a B- 😒

BUT!!! and as someone who used to obsess over my gpa, i am so proud of myself to be in this place emotionally, i am ✨going to be ok✨

hi, i know this is so random but i kinda need some advice and you're one of the nicest people here, so i thought i'd ask you. i'm having some trouble not knowing if i made the right career choice. for context, i'm a med student in a non-english speaking country. i've always loved books, and reading is the thing that most joy brings me. i'm wondering if i made the right choice going for medicine (i'm not currently very happy with uni), or if i should've chosen something literature related. i guess i'm just asking for your experience as someone who's studying english, and maybe your thoughts on the uncertainty of the career paths these courses have. you don't have to answer anything you don't want to. thanks a lot :))

ok first of all thank you so much for sending this!! (and we're going to pretend i didn't absolutely lose my mind at being called one of the nicest people on here alkjsdhflakjsdhflaksjdfh thank you so much for saying that) but yes i'm happy to chat and i'm happy to offer my advice and some info about my experience!!

a lot of advice i think you'll see for this kind of question is basically, "you can read books with or without a degree, so get a practical degree and you can enjoy still reading in your free time." and you might not expect this coming from me, but i actually think there's merit in that advice! i know i go on and on about how an english degree is super valuable but i do think there is a large degree of privilege involved in being able to choose to study a liberal arts degree, and sometimes, the best thing you can do is find a degree that can promise you a solid and steady income. there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!! medicine is a wonderful, rewarding, and stable career path and i think that you'll have a lot of opportunities in that field if you decide to pursue it.

THAT SAID. i obviously still think english is the best degree in the world, and i'm happy to offer you a little bit of insight on my experience studying english, as well as my current understanding of the career paths for english majors! (i'm currently recruiting for jobs right now so it's something that's on my mind a lot lol)

in terms of english and why i think it's a valuable degree, what it comes down to for me is not necessarily about having obvious hard skills, or even really clear communication and writing skills (though those are obviously great and marketable skills to have that you gain from the major!!) but for me the best thing about an english degree was that it taught me how to think. it taught me how to take in a ton of information, distill it down to a clear concept, and have critical and informed thoughts and ideas about that concept.

like, if you'll allow me to digress for a moment, i'll offer you a (somewhat goofy) example from my own life. this summer, i went to see the film of in the heights with my family, and i'd never seen the musical so i went in totally cold, knowing nothing about the plot or anything. and i enjoyed it!! and then when the movie ended, i turned to my brother and said "don't you think it's interesting how you can see in his work how lin manuel miranda's perception of death has changed over the course of his life? like this musical is concerned with whether or not you will be remembered, a concern which makes sense for a young college student, which he would've been while he was writing it. while hamilton presents a more mature view about death and memory from someone older and already somewhat famous; that being, how will you be remembered and who will control your legacy. i just think it's interesting!" anyway i said all of this, and my brother looked at me for a second, then turned to my mom and went "see? she's insane. the credits are barely rolling, and she already has, like, a take. i was still just thinking about the last song."

obviously that's an example where there were no stakes, and it was just kind of funny to me, but my point is that that's a skill that will take you really far! i'm often told in job interviews that i'm good at asking thoughtful questions, and i think a lot of that is just being able to really quickly take in information, analyze it, and communicate a thought or idea about it to someone else. it seems basic, but you'd be surprised how many people can't do that.

anyway the point of that story is that to me, an english degree isn't really about reading at all -- it's about synthesizing information, analyzing media for themes and messages, and being able to articulate what you see and why you see it. obviously there's a great deal of reading involved, but if i'm being honest, i didn't choose english because i liked reading, or really even because i liked writing. i liked them both well enough, but to me, i chose english because i liked thinking. and i think the way an english degree teaches you to think is one of the most exhilarating and valuable things in education. (i also chose english because it gave me an opportunity to study everything i love: popular media, niche histories, drama and theater, 19th century novels, and everything else all at once.)

in regards to your question about career paths, i think one of the great and also scary things about english is, like you said, the uncertainty of potential careers. but i think what's cool about that is that you can really do so much with an english degree! i would say the classic career paths (other than academia of course) are publishing, journalism, marketing and pr, and other writing and editing based fields, but you'll find english majors literally anywhere you can think of. i know english majors who are working in tech, advertising, consulting, freelance journalism, project management, and so much more!! it's a very versatile degree! obviously it's not as clearly defined as other majors like medicine or computer science can be, but there's a lot of opportunities available. i think it comes down to what job opportunities you find while being a student (something i was personally terrible at, lol, so no sweat), how well you market yourself, and being able to sell those soft skills in an interview situation. there's a lot you can do with english, but to be frank, it's going to be less clearly defined than a lot of other degrees. and that freedom can be both paralyzing and exciting at the same time.

even if you don't end up pursuing literature, if you're able to do so, i would recommend just taking a literature class as an elective, or auditing one for fun! it can be such a blast to get to participate in a hyper-specific english seminar with a bunch of fellow weirdos, and when you end up in a class with a great professor or a great group of students, it can become such an exciting and stimulating intellectual experience. and if you're unsure, that can also be a great way to get your feet wet in the discipline without fully committing to a degree or a change in major.

anyway i hope (??) even a little bit of that helped!!! in classic caroline fashion, you asked me a question and received an insanely long and unhinged reply, but i hope at least part of my answer can be valuable or helpful to you. university can be so stressful and i spent such a long time even deciding what i wanted to study! i actually came in thinking i wanted to do political science and psych, and i very much... did not do either of those things. but it took me about a year to figure it out, and i still had regular crises about my major until about halfway through my junior year. so it's totally fine to question it!! i have the utmost faith that you will find the right answer for YOU, and try not to stress out about it too much. everything is going to work out just the way it's supposed to <3