"What are you gonna do with thaaat?": My Useless English MA

The validity of an English degree is constantly debated.  And the validity of a graduate English degree is always hotly contested. And, ironically, the viability of pursing an English masters or PhD is even sometimes brought under fire by those holding BA's in English. Some argue that they don't need to pursue such degrees since they won't learn any hardskills; they can sit down and read a book and “get it” without having a higher degree.  Such arguments are humorous in that you have to wonder if these people needed a BA to do such a thing.  But there in lies the rub.  People who make this argument tend to see their BA's as groundwork to the "real work" they must move onto.  Their undergraduate college years were the last bit of frivolous fun before adulthood.  This reasoning is of course extremely dismissive of anyone who chooses a career in English.      

It also assumes that people who pursue English degrees must only do so for the love of simply reading literature; it doesn't even consider the fact that any rational person who chooses to pursue anything at the graduate level does so with a career at least partly in mind, with the desire to hone skills for a particular life and profession.  No, again Rational, person pursues a graduate level degree for dick measuring purposes.  Now, that said, let me explain the multiple reasons I chose to complete a masters in English.

Approaching completion of my BA in English, it became apparent to me that the degree wasn't going to improve my job prospects, at least not for any kind of job that I wanted.  When you realize that, you have to do one of three things: get really creative, work in customer service, or pursue further education.  Well, I kinda wanted to go to grad school.  I looked forward to studying alongside peers who were interested in the same things as me, and I looked forward to looking at literature in whole new ways- ones that had little to do with personal interpretation and everything to do with entering a discourse of professional scholarship.  You see, literature is more to me than something I'll do alone before bed at night, after my day is done.  It is my day.  It is one of the things my life is centered on.  It always has been.  I want to talk to people about stories. I want to write about stories.  I want to tell them.  I want to teach about them. I want that to be my bread and butter.

Another reason I wanted to go to grad school for an English degree was so that I could study something totally new to me at the time: rhetoric and composition.  This portion of my MA is how I learned a true trade: the teaching of composition.  This was how I learned about something closely related to my love of literature but so much different.  And I honed my skills teaching the English language.  As a result of pursuing my "frivolous" English MA, I've spent three summers in China and Taiwan teaching students to speak English.  Grad school turned out to be exactly the right decision for me.  I was able to further pursue my love and to learn about something new- both paths that took me to the place I am now: employed doing things that, regardless of growing pains, I enjoy and that I'm good at.

I didn't go to prove anything or to enter an elite club or to continue doing the exact same things I'd done as an undergrad: I went to learn the different aspects of the things I love, and I came out with knowledge and experience of things I'd never expected.  You pursue what you love, prepare for disappointment, and don't make excuses for what you choose not to do.