Realistically, I don't just study that. I'm currently doing a joint honours degree; Media Studies and English. Growing up I knew that I always wanted something published on some degree of 'paper' or otherwise, whether that was a piece of writing or an illustration, I didn't mind. So I figured a course like this would be apt for me.
Not a lot of people can understand why someone would want to study English, I know when I tell people they think I'm some avid Shakespeare fan who writes poetry when she's bored. I'm not, and to be honest I don't really even like Shakespeare that much.
Growing up, I was always a creative person. I liked hobbies and subjects in school that I could direct myself. I was put off by subjects that I did terribly in no matter how much effort I applied to them, and so I completely disregarded the importance of classes that depended on the right answer. From this, it's evident that I could only really exercise myself in subjects like Art and English.
I think it's important that I mention that the secondary school that I went to was very success and ascendancy orientated. You knew who was the best at physics and who did applied maths and who the best sports people were. I'm not trying to demean any of their progress, in ways I'm entirely jealous that I'm not like them. It's just that the school celebrated excellence in something they deemed more important than the 'softer' subjects as opposed to Business, Accounting, Chemistry etc etc.
In career classes and aptitude tests, I was recommended to pursue the likes of gardening and agricultural work because the only thing they could be detect from my disposition was that I liked working with my hands and I wasn't a person that would work well in an office/management type environment.
I was never really able to express my interests in school and so there was a huge lack of motivation due to the whole 'success' agenda, and I preferred to kind of just exist. Because of this I think it came across that I would just kind of sail through school and hopefully land a job that I could work at for the rest of who knows how long. In school, I was constantly reminded that I could try to avail of a DARE or HEAR scheme, which didn't help my ego at all. However, when I returned to my school months after leaving and asked what I was up to, a lot of teachers (the ones that actually knew me) were happily surprised to hear that I was studying, even more so when they figured out it was English.
So, What is it actually like to study English?
- Secondary School doesn't prepare you
College level English is nothing like the secondary school level. I was leaving school with A results on creative writing essays and excellent poetry analysis', not to mention constant ego-boosting appraisals from my English teacher. I thought college was going to be a breeze, I loved English and I was good at it so surely this was going to be fine. Nada, none of this is true. The subject in secondary school is like a crash course more than anything else. Cultural context is little to nothing in the scheme of things. The poetry analysis that you rehearsed during the LC is elementary compared to what's expected at this level. The relationship between Lear and Kent and the importance of the blinding of Gloucester is simply nothing compared to what you're required to hand up. Following the leaving cert English curriculum isn't enough.
- The rate at which you go through material is crazy
For each semester, I study 3-4 topics. With each topic, there's at least 4 or 5 poems/books/plays that I'm required to read and understand to prepare myself for the exam. I really push myself to read those that I think I'll enjoy the most but sometimes there just isn't enough time and I find myself seeking out the shortest or seemingly easiest of all the absolutely essential readings.
- A love for the Classics
One of the reasons I leaned towards English for the majority of my life was because I always had my nose in a book. Much to my dismay, my English lecturers aren't exactly devoted Twilight or overall Teen Fiction book worms.
Although I wouldn't have been accustomed to the more difficult language and comprehensive plots, I was quickly introduced to some of the greatest novels that the world has come across. Some of these were titles that I knew but wouldn't have attempted to read for years to come, but I've got a lot of them under my belt already. There's a lot of gratification that comes from reading and grasping a novel by the Bronté sisters or Jane Austen or Charles Dickens or Mark Twain (I could go on and on). - References
There's just something about watching a TV show or a movie and getting the majority of the literary references that are littered throughout their plots. They're most commonly found in comedic television sitcoms. And it wasn't until I started re-watching television series' before I realized that there are so many references in some of my favourite TV shows that I completely missed and you probably did too. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore are forever doing it, as is Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl. Pretty Little Liars, Friends, Breaking Bad, The Simpsons and so many more drop them here and there and it's almost like you didn't even hear them do it. Not that this is one of the best things about English, but there's definitely a degree of fulfillment when I can spot them and understand the reasons as to why they would be included.
* A side note; it's not just TV. I often listen to music when writing these and Natasha Bedingfield just mentioned Byron, Shelley and Keats in These Words. - People are either really interested or couldn't care less
Nothing like asking your parents or one of your friends to read over an essay you've come up with and just watch their eyes glaze over. People find it really impressive or just don't care that much. English can be long-winded the majority of the time. And some people just aren't that interested in what you think about a book based on a short piece of narrative found in the first few pages or why a poet would be inclined to use a word starting with a particular letter rather than a better sounding synonym.
I've been in a real writing funk the past while, bu I'm determined to get over it. The reason why I've lost motivation is because I haven't been totally happy in myself. However, writing on this blog makes me content and I often forget that, so I'm trying to do it more often.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading!
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