So I hear you like literature...

Person: "So what's your major?"
Me: "My major is English. But I am also going for minors in Creative Writing, Spanish and Japanese."
Person: "Wow. That's a lot. What are you planning to do after college? Are you going to teach English?"

Sadly enough, I've had this conversation with various people more times than I care to count, with the exact same response almost every time. It. Is. Frustrating. There is a whole world of career opportunities for people who've studied English! Yet all anyone asks is if I plan to become a teacher/professor. No offense to anyone interested in the field of education, but there is so much more to language and literature than simply passing on the information. My ideal career doesn't have anything to do with spelling tests, correcting essays for hours or entertaining masses of kids K-12. Nor do I feel like I belong in the college community for the rest of my future. No thank you. I'm much too creative for that. My response...

Me: "No, I'm not interested in teaching."
Person: "Then what are you planning to do?"
Me: "I want to be a published writer."

Note, that I said a published writer. I want to hone the skills of the craft to become damn good, if not great. That is, good enough to have my stories published and hopefully gain a following that can appreciate my style and imagination. I don't want to be the next Herman Melville (ugh--been there, read that, got the scars to prove it) or Emily Dickinson. I just want to do what I love well enough to make a decent living from it.

My dream job is to become a full-time author, however reality has a way of not cooperating with my ambition and I know it will take a while to achieve. Therefore, I hope to go into publishing or maybe even editing for book companies.

Some other career options for people who study English and/or writing are:

• librarian
• bookstore owner/employee
• literary critic / book reviewer
• publishing, editing, copy writing
• work in journalism: newspapers, magazines, newsletters, online news articles, 
• write advertisements (ex: travel, tourism, websites, etc...)
• write kids books
• songwriting
• write non-fiction, poetry, fiction of any kind (short stories to novels to series)
• screenwriting for TV shows, commercials, movies, plays, musicals, video game stories
• freelance writing - speeches, business finance, 

And of course, some lucky people get paid to write blogs on websites. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. I humbly offer this rant free of charge.

In total, writing has many diverse job opportunities. One need not be a starving artist to be a good writer. There is no shame in making money doing what you love (esp. if it doesn't harm anyone). I hope this post makes someone think twice before assuming that all English majors desire to teach.