What I Did with My College Degree in English Literature

When I graduated with a BA in English Literature my friends and family thought I was crazy for spending the last four years of my life doing nothing but reading books and writing papers. For the most part, they were right. I had no plans to teach since my belief is it takes someone with a special tolerance for other people to be teachers and I am not one of them. The thought of law school was very enticing also but sitting through another three years of writing and reading about a "limited subject" squeezed the life out of that idea.

Instead, I found a new life in Atlanta working for a woman's clothing retailer and loathed every moment of it. I love style and fashion but did not like the customer service end of it; nor did I like retail in general. I had hopes of working in the visual department and creating plan-o-grams but that would mean another transfer. Besides that, being couped in a store all day with artificial lights will damper one's soul if there too long. Oddly, during this time I was offered a writing position with a martial arts magazine and guess what? I didn't take it because I was scared. The idea of writing content and making a living from it was foreign to me, and although the clothing store was horrendous; it was a tangible entity with others involved.

For the next couple of years I floundered and created my own business, as well as, helped my husband grow and expand our business. Even at this point in my life my degree sat by the wayside and I wondered if I would ever do anything with it. Coming to terms with it, I was just glad to have graduated and am ever-so surprised when turning in a resume or job application and the interviewer is impressed with my English Literature degree.

Now, eleven years later, my degree hangs on my husband's wall among his hundreds of accolades while I type my life away for web articles. It's a far cry from what I would have imagined doing for a profession but enjoy it all the same. Due to the difference in web articles and what they teach in college I have had to re-learn to write by keeping it simple for the vast majority and had to learn what my niche would be. Besides web articles for Associated Content and some other writing sites I have found a niche in doing promotional articles for the body building arena, which is very different but right up my alley. Writing is a passion of mine but when my children start school I will once again open the doors for new things.