The Best Decision I Ever Made: Reflections from a Senior English Major

By Emma Paolini

When I first arrived at Fordham, I had absolutely no intention of pursuing a degree in English. I was determined to be a lawyer, and somehow had convinced myself that in order to do so I had to get a history degree on a pre-law track. I was wrong about several things. Undergraduates across a variety of disciplines go to law school, and whether or not I majored in history would likely not affect my law school admissions. However, I would later learn another crucial fact: I did not want to major in history, nor did I want to go to law school.

I made an abrupt decision around the time of my twentieth birthday. I struggled for a long time with this decision, but it ultimately came down to the realization that I only wanted to study history on a pre-law track because it sounded impressive to me, and studying English felt like an indulgence, something only to do for fun. At the crossroads of my twenties, I decided I wanted to pursue something I felt passionately about, not just because it sounded impressive according to an arbitrary metric I had created for myself. I dropped the pre-law track, I went to a panel about careers in publishing, I declared the English major, and I joined the Ampersand literary magazine. I decided I would dedicate my academic career and beyond to surrounding myself with as many books as possible. It ended up being the best decision I ever made.

I want to shake my freshman self who believed that the English major would be a fun indulgence rather than the serious asset to my personal and professional development that it ended up being. My English classes have challenged me to write more concisely. They have encouraged me to think critically about important topics, to follow arguments to their far-reaching implications and have changed how I engage with ideas. One English course opened my eyes to the realities of housing injustice in New York City and took me to grassroots organizations in Harlem, while another brought me to a live performance at the Globe Theater in London. Joining the Creative Writing concentration further challenged me to take on projects I never would have believed I could complete. I wrote a short play and got to see it performed on a stage. I detailed my unusual summer working in a hotel in a fifteen-page article in spite of the fact that I tend to struggle with long-form writing. I even began feeling confident enough to send my work out to the Fordham Ram.

In an increasingly digital world, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic, written communication has become more important than ever. The English major has given me the tools to communicate clearly and sharpened my critical reading abilities; two necessary skills in a variety of industries. Beyond the professional opportunities the English department has afforded me, however, I have also found a valuable sense of community within the English major. Because of the flexibility of the English degree, I have met students with a variety of career ambitions and from a multitude of backgrounds. My classmates have opened my eyes to the breadth of options available to English majors and supported me as I found my own path. I look forward to keeping up with their stories through the English department’s robust social network in the coming years.

Most importantly, I have learned a valuable lesson over the past four years that I may not have understood without the help of the English department: often, people do their best work when they feel passionately about that work. I used to believe that loving literature and doing good literary work had to be mutually exclusive ideas, but now I realize that these phenomena fuel one another. I learned to follow my passions and let them take me to a career rather than trying to box myself in based on preconceived notions of success. Now, I realize true success means building a life and a career that feels meaningful.

With the support of fellow English majors who have given me advice and supported my dreams, I plan to work in publishing as a marketing or publicity professional. I realize that publishing is a fast-paced industry with few guarantees, requiring flexibility and robust organization skills. One thing, however, that I have heard from many who work in this industry is that the most important thing is a love of books. The English major has taught me, beyond the career assets and the personal development opportunities, the importance of loving what you do. And I cannot wait to use my English degree to do what I love.