Final Exam

I’m not going to lie and say that this came easy to me. It wasn’t exactly difficult, either but talking about my future plans has always been one of my least favorite subjects. I’ve always known that college was right for me. I’m too smart to not go, but I’m not smart enough to think I could invent some genius, unexplored, idea that says “Dianne, drop out of college, invent me, and together we’ll make billions.” I’m no Bill Gates.

From about middle school on, the hardest question anyone could ask me is “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was in elementary school, no one really asked you, because let’s be honest—how many people do you know figure out exactly what they want to do by the time they’re ten? Exactly. It’s like asking a kid whom they will marry and spend the rest of their life with.

Nonetheless, the question was proposed and my answer was usually veterinarian, or (like I said in the Literacy Essay) a vampire hunter. I was too encouraged to follow the latter idea.

But in middle school, teachers and parents alike seem to think that that’s the time you need to know what you’re doing. My answers were always changing, just to placate the interviewer. With my parents and family, I always wanted to be something prestigious. For a long while it was a genetic councilor (which I gave up complete interest when I realized that would take two PhD’s). With my friends, it was always something that made a lot of money, like an anesthesiologist (I actually never wanted to do that, so I can’t tell you when I gave it up).

Sometimes I changed my future professions more often then I changed my clothes. No matter, by the time I got to college, I still had no idea what to do with the rest of my life. That was always too big a step for me to fully commit to. In the end, I settled on something that I’ve always had my eye on, a teacher. More specifically, an English teacher.

It seems that the deeper I get into the program of study, the more I start to think like a teacher. Instead of just reading a book and thoughtlessly enjoying it, it’s “now that’s something that my students could learn from, I should teach it.” Or “this theme is really common, but the premise relates to” book so-and-so. I love comparing books in my head. I should have started a list for my future students to read.

Being an English major for about a year now, it’s longest time I've held onto a major. It seems like it must be right.

It’s hard to say where my interest in reading and writing will take me. I’m not entirely sure it will even take me anywhere. I may yet become bored with this major and switch to something probably less fascinating but more appealing. With my insatiable appetite for change, I can’t convince myself that this is exactly what I want to do in my life, though it seems to fit.

Hopefully I’ll become a high school English teacher one day. So far that’s the plan. No matter, books and reading will always be a part of my life. I’ve always enjoyed the escape that a good book can provide. I may not know if literature will play a large role in my life and become part of my career, but it’s always comforting to know that the smaller, more simplistic role will be there.

I keep dabbling with the idea of becoming an editor. I think that would be the dream job, but it’s so time-consuming, and I wouldn’t want to work with newspapers. There goes that idea.

It’d definitely be nice to say that I will write a book someday. I would love to, really, but my mind just doesn’t think in a structured way. You should see me write papers. It’s completely backwards. And to do that for 300 pages wouldn’t be too great of an idea.

Either way, I’m still planning on becoming an English teacher, and hopefully that won’t change. That’s the true direction I would like my interests in reading to take me. I enjoy it too much to stay on the back burner.