Summer in Worcester

I know last semester I wrote a post about how I was going to be the last one here, the one closing the halls as everyone leaves. When I wrote that, I was not anticipating being able to say the same thing this semester. However it is once again true that I will be one of the last ones here because I am going to be one of the summer RAs in Blackstone. Yes, now that my courses are finished and my papers are resting comfortably in boxes in Leir II (the English Department's Paper Central), I have an entire summer at Clark to look forward to.

It is going to be an interesting experience for a number of reasons. First, I will be cooking for myself. I am by no means inept at cooking; in fact, I rather enjoy it. Still it will be the first time that I am cooking solely for myself for all my meals. Second, it will be the first time I am RAing in a building. I have been an RA in 21 and 23 Maywood all year, two of the RLH Houses. I have loved it, and my residents were fantastic, but I think it will probably be different to be in a suite-style, large residence hall. Third, I will have suite-mates. I have missed having a roommate to come back to at night and share my day with. It will be nice just to have people around that I can say hello to after working in the office. Fourth, there is all the construction that will be going on at Clark. Maybe I can take some pictures and post them when I get back in the beginning of next semester. Fifth and finally, I can explore Worcester in the summer in a way I don't during the school year. My first plan is to walk over to WooBerry and see how it compares to YoWay.

So expect lots of updates when the term resumes! I am sure I will have a lot to say.

April 30th

It’s 4:07 p.m., on a Monday afternoon. I had forgotten that Big Brother Big Sister ended last week and I’m not in the mood to do laundry or any schoolwork so I’m back at work in the English Department for the second time today. Classes are over and the only thing in the way of my summer and home sweet Brooklyn is finals. *Sad face* I wish there was no such thing. I’m trying to take it day by day and remain calm. I don’t want to stress. Stress is no good. As bad as I want it to be over, I don’t want the days going by too fast. I need time to study, but I want to go home oh so badly and forget about school. I remember when I used to LOVE school. I never wanted to miss a day, not even for a doctor’s appointment and I used to love those too. My pediatrician always gave me stickers and I would run around in the halls with my siblings while we fed the vending machines all of our mother’s money. Anyhow, back to school. It’s not like I hate it. It’s just different when you’re in college than when you’re high school, junior high school or elementary. You’re young, wild and carefree (a little less in high school though). In college, you have to buckle down and get serious. You’re either already in the “real” world or preparing for it. It’s all about your future from here on and you can’t afford to screw things up.

It’s been three years. Next semester, fall semester 2012, I’ll be a senior. I’m not ready. I don’t want to go just yet and I don’t want to graduate just yet either. I don’t know if it even matters because this isn’t the end of school for me. I’ve always wanted to become a Pediatrician since I was a little girl and I still do. A lot of people I know or have talked to have changed their minds about their future profession and their majors as well, but I’ve always stuck with mine and I’m happy about that. I always joke around with my friends and say that I’ll be in school forever and that I’ll be sitting in class with my cane then one day just roll over. Ha-ha. I guess I better start loving school again. Ugh. I cannot believe how fast my undergraduate career has gone by. I remember the first day I step foot on Clark campus like it was yesterday. It really does feel like yesterday. Time really does fly huh? Someone needs to tell me where time keeps flying off to so I can go get it and put it in a box and secure it for when I’m ready for the next step. I’ll be 21 this summer, June 25^th to be exact. Ahhh! Next thing you know I’ll be married with children, a house, a car and a career! It’s all just too fast. Time, SLOW DOWN! Please and thank you. Sheesh! I would do anything to be a little girl again, ANYTHING!

The Embarrassment of Being an English Major

“So what are you going to do with that?  Teach?”

These two questions always seem to be the follow up to my answer of the dreaded question:  “What’s your major?”

As I sit with my friends, I always think about how much cooler their answers to this question sound.  Wow, you are a Biochem major with a pre-med concentration?  Wow, International Development and Social Change?  Getting a Master of Science in Finance?  Completed the Mathematics major and now wondering if you should add a double with Physics, and if there’s time, possibly a minor in Computer Science?

What’s my major again?

Repeatedly, I’m told that my degree is not very substantial:

 “The guy who changes tires on my car has an English degree.”

“It will make a nice coaster someday.” 

 “The waiter at the Olive Garden has an English degree.”

And then, there are some pretty weird stereotypes I have to work with too:

“Oh, so you’re one of those book people who sit around trying to think of something original to say about Shakespeare, right?”

“English major?  How do your parents feel about that?  They let you go off to college to get an English degree?” 

“You speak English though!”

                There seems to be an assumption that my English degree is pretty useless and rather lame.  Especially when compared to those science people who are making the future for us all.  Or those finance people who are rolling in the cash.  Or those international development people who get to travel to all kinds of different places.

                What am I going to do with my English degree?  Teach?

Maybe. 

Maybe I will end up teaching English.  Maybe I will end up abroad, teaching English in refugee camps in Jordan.  Maybe I will be working at a private school in Java.  Maybe I’ll end up teaching in inner city schools in D.C., helping children be the first in their families to graduate high school. 

Or maybe I’ll end up being a chairman of a hydroelectric and mineral company in Laos.  Maybe I will end up as a CEO of a major financing company in New York City.

Maybe I’ll be a lawyer.  Maybe I’ll be a lawyer working in a small claims court.  Maybe I’ll be an internationally renowned lawyer specializing in human rights violations. 

Maybe I’ll be writing speeches for political figures.  Maybe for Nobel Prize winners.  Maybe I’ll be working as a translator for the CIA or the FBI.  Maybe I’ll be a journalist for National Geographic.

Maybe my potential is not limited to words written on a piece of paper or defined by the answer to the dreaded question:  What’s your major? 

Maybe most companies don’t care what you got your degree in, but about whether or not you can produce a ten page paper, or a memo, on whatever subject they ask you to write it on.  Maybe experience will be a deciding factor.

And when my friends with their cool sounding majors need help writing their research proposals, applications for research grants, publications, scholarship applications, etc., who do they ask first?