Paint a vulgar picture.

[WeedFaerie420]

WeedFaerie, do you have any ambitions toward ever teaching writing? I see in your discussions with Ian very good critical thinking skills and an ability to take good writing and make it better. That's a rare gift, my dear, and one you need to be aware you have. I'll be eager to hear where you hope to go with both your verbal and critical skills because I think you'll get a lot of mileage out of one or both of them.

Ian, I hope you'll keep writing more and more. It's such good therapy, I think, and you clearly have a knack for it.

It's been 20 years since I taught writing/English but only a couple of weeks since I left a job as a writer. I hope y'all don't mind my butting in with comments to both of you!

Thank you so much for the compliment, that means a lot to me. After getting my associates degree in general studies I transferred to a University majoring in English Education for the Secondary Level (8th-12th grade). I came to the realization that standing in front of a class and working at the very place I hated so much as a child-teen wasn't for me. I changed my major before having to student teach. I'm now an English and Psychology major and have about one and half years before getting my bachelors in both. I'll be continuing on in clinical and counseling psychology (you're right, I am very analytical and critical lol). All my english teachers told me I should stick with it and by now my essay writing skills are developed enough that I expect an A with every essay I hand in (and thankfully I haven't been disappointed yet). I trained myself to question every sentence I write and read. I was thinking of working in a publishing house while I go to grad school for psychology. Maybe someday I'll get into education again, if I get a doctorate and can teach at the college level I wouldn't mind that at all.
Any other ideas or advice of what you think I could do with a bachelors in English would be much appreciated? What kind of writing do you do now? Thanks for your observations and comments Birdgirl! xo

[birdgirl73]

Hi again! You're welcome on the comments and observations! I'm always full of those (many would say too full!).

I got a triple-major undergrad degree in English, journalism and pre-med when I finished college and segued directly into a master's program that gave me a combo M.A. in English and education. So when I came out, I had the undergrad and master's degree and a teaching certificate. I taught high school English for two years before I got the brilliant idea I needed to go to law school. I should never have done that because I never cared a whit about law, but it was competitive and I got in, and so I did it. I've never once used that degree professionally. The real burning desire I had was always to go to med school like my husband, who I married between the teaching and law school years. I worked during those teaching and law school summers as a paramedic for my hometown fire department, and I always knew medicine was really what called me and interested me.

Anyway, with all that verbal training and an extra degree I didn't plan to use, I went to work as a reporter/writer for a big newspaper here in Dallas where I live. Did that a couple of years. Then a desire for more money drove me to a job with a big high tech corporation as a writer, and I've done marketing communications writing and speechwriting for them for 17 years, only stopping two weeks ago today. People who can write can do so much in the business world. Speechwriting and marketing copy were fun because they had the human, salesy touch. But there's also tech writing, business writing, editing. You name it. English definitely doesn't necessarily mean we have to teach. Corporations are always needing Web writers, editors, and the like. Newspapers need reporters. Non-profits need PR people who can write. Educational institutions need people who can write curriculum. The list is endless. My mom and dad are both college English professors (now retired), and while academia is great, it is very hard to get into that because there are so few jobs available. And they pay miserably compared to the business world.

So there was my life story, which I should never have bored you with, but that at least covered my job history with words. I finally got my nerve up a year and a half ago to get the ball rolling on my medical ambitions again. Our son is grown and in college now, and so I took the MCAT prep review courses, applied and was accepted. I have my first day of medical school on Monday, and today was my first-year-student orientation. I'm scared to death, but I figure I can probably do it since they accepted me. So, at almost 45, I'm basically just now finally embarking on my lifelong dream. I don't mean to imply that I haven't loved my career in writing or that I haven't fulfilled a dream by simply being married and having a family. I have. But now that that dream is well underway, I'm ready for another adventure!!

Too much information, I know. Sorry about that!