Major Matters
Do any of you know who Elizabeth Bishop is? It's okay. I didn't either. I didn't major in English. Though usually an English professor, I come to you today as my undergraduate self, as a math-econ major -- one whose parents, terrified he'd never find work, told him that he could major in anything but English. And yet I managed, eventually. So, this is anything but a cautionary tale.
I'm not going to say that the major doesn't matter;
Nor can I say
That choosing wrongly will bring disaster:
Nor that you should major in something every day;
Nor buy the chatter
That specific majors on your resume
Will make a prospective employer gladder.
But of your choice I will say
That pleasure above all is what matters --
Not passion -- passion rarely lasts a semester --
But work that brings
Pleasure, lasting pleasure, is never a disaster.
And after you graduate some not-so-distant spring,
Your employers, faster
Than you can say wage slave, will spring
To alienate your work into mere labor.
Your work:
And let's just say you'll be all the madder
If you've already done the dirty work for them.
So, since pleasure matters,
Major -- please -- in what you do in your spare time.
After all, the art of choosing isn't too hard to master
Regardless of whether your parents treat it
(Day ... after day ... after day ... after day)
Like disaster.