The Perks of
Being an English Major
by Alex Andy Phuong
The title of this creative
work is obviously an allusion to the famous young
adult novel The Perks of Being a
Wallflower, which was also adapted as a film
starring Hermione Granger from the Harry
Potter series. Some people
would regard English Majors as simply college
students who spend countless hours reading, and
those same critics might question whether or not
those college students that they want to
criticize would make any significant contribution
to society. It is true that I might
never end world hunger or create something that
would protect the Earth from an alien invasion (if,
of course, other forms of life do exist out there
in the universe), but I must admit that I am an
English Major who does more than read literature. I
am willing to share with the reader of this piece
of writing the perks involved with spending
significant amounts of time reading written work
made by people who lived hundreds of years ago,
and also creating new works of originality, which
is exactly what I am doing right now while
staring at my computer screen.
As time passed after
meeting Julie Andrews at Vroman’s Bookstore
in Pasadena, I had been fortunate enough to meet
other celebrities at that same location. So
far, I have met Jane Fonda, William Friedkin, and
Shirley Jones. I have even met Jane
Lynch from the TV show Glee, which
unfortunately ended its six-year run recently. In
spite of my sheer adoration for film, it was also
a blessing to meet a living literary figure at
both Cal State L.A. and at The Last Bookstore. Meeting
José Kozer was a truly unique experience because
I had never even heard of him until Dr. Ramey
told me about him. I am honestly
speechless when it comes to meeting someone that
famous even though I had only known about him for
a very short period of my young adult life. Nevertheless,
I was truly blessed to meet incredibly talented
individuals that contributed to the world of
literature and the cinematic universe.
I can honestly say that I
am not sure how to respond to the idea of meeting
a living literary icon, but I am grateful for
being able to meet a writer like José Kozer. Meeting
creative artists with tremendous talent is the
greatest perk of being an English Major, I
suppose. It is true that I might never
be a Biology Major at Berkeley, like my brother
was, but I am still blessed in so many ways
because there are literally millions of people
who could only dream about meeting people like
José Kozer and the film director of the famous
horror film The Exorcist. And
who knows, maybe one day I will be signing books
that I wrote for readers who enjoy my writing. As
of now, I just have to wait and see…
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