Jamison Guice, Campus Carrier Asst. Features Editor

As a sophomore, it took me a few semesters to commit to being an English major.

I was first an engineering major; I took a class in calculus and physics which I regret for the sake of my GPA. Then, there was a time shortly after in which I was extremely confused because no matter how badly I wanted to be good at math, it was not going to happen. So, after a very quick week of soul searching, I switched to the department that I am now currently majoring in.

Now fully immersed in the English department, I can categorize myself according to the unofficial stereotypes given to students. According to one of my professors, there are two types of English majors: the readers and the writers. I remember that the day this was said, I had an epiphany. I had fallen into the category of a reader. I have always dreaded essays, and now it made sense. I was not alone; there were others like me. However, even though I dislike a big part of being an English major, I realized that I do not have to love everything about it.

The reason for this is for the most part of the semester I get to do what I love most: read. I am able to curl up on a couch in the library with a good book for two hours, drinking a hot chocolate.

However, the other side of the coin is writing. When assigned an essay, I feel as if I should check out a dictionary from the library just so I can meet the word requirement. Focusing thousands of words on one single topic seems like an exhausting task, hiking up a mountain would be easier.

By the time I turn the assignment in, I never want to think about the ambiguity of an author’s writing, the repetition of a certain motif or theme, the point of view or the importance of symbolic language ever again. The only thing that gets me through a 2,500-word essay is that no matter how bad my opinion is, there is always a secondary source that will support it.

So, even though I do not particularly enjoy delving into the mind of David Thoreau or William Wordsworth, I have now realized the importance of loving what you learn, because no matter what it is, I will never be interested in histograms, infinities, lines or the equation of slope; they just do not make sense.