A Future English Major?

My friend Shelby (one of my best friends from my Adirondack Children's Troupe days) is coming to visit me tomorrow and staying until Tuesday, and I am incredibly excited to see her, for one, but also to show her around. Shelby is a junior in high school, and Washington College is one of the schools she's considering.

My friends have pointed out that I will have graduated by the time Shelby goes here, if this is where she decides to go, and I realize that. I just think Shelby would like it here, and she would make such a good English major.

She says that she wants to major in Drama and possibly minor or double major in English, but, just like I knew Laura wanted to major in English and minor in art and not the other way around (she has declared), I know that Shelby wants to be an English major.

Really, I think people should just save themselves some time and do what I tell them. When my brother Nate and I were in high school, he, for some reason unknown to anyone, decided to take physics.

"Why would you take physics?" I asked, "When you've already met the minimum number of required science classes?"

He said that he was good at science and that it would look good on his transcript.

I said, "You're going to art school. No one is going to care that you've taken physics. When, as a photography major, are you going to ever need physics?"

But he did not listen, and he signed up for physics. I could not understand this, as I would never subject myself to a science class without cause. "What is wrong with him?" I wondered.

Several weeks into his physics class Nate did not like it. He was having trouble, and he didn't like his teacher. "Drop it," I said. "Drop it now. Drop it fast. Drop it before the drop/add deadline."

But he did not listen, the drop/add deadline passed, and he was stuck with physics, which he hated. I said, "I told you to drop physics. I told you not to sign up for it in the first place. But you didn't listen to me. And now you are taking physics for no reason."

Now Nate is in art school taking photography, color theory (apparently, color has a theory), and public speaking. You know what he's not taking? Physics.

That's my point. Physics is a waste of time for artists, and Nate has always so obviously been an artist. Shelby is obviously an English major. She is like us. She belongs here, and that is why I'm excited for her visit.

I plan to fill her sixteen-year-old-head with as many English-majory thoughts as I possibly can. Not that I don't think she should major in drama. She can double major; that's fine. (It makes so much more sense than taking physics.) It's just that she needs to realize how important English is to her.