Harvest International

Written by Trevor Brown

I entered college not knowing what I was doing. Genuinely. I started at Mt. SAC, sampling various classes in hopes that one of them would sit me down and tell me, THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO! I continued taking classes for the sake of taking classes. I could justify it by telling myself, At least you’re in college; which was true, it’s a good thing, though I wasn’t heading anywhere. I started off as a psychology major, then changed to a fashion major, back to a psychology major, dropped that then became an environmental science major, and became a psychology major one more time, all within the span of three semesters, all before I realized that “Undeclared” was something you could call yourself. 

During my fourth semester, I was enrolled in one of the required English classes. English 1C—Rhetorical Reasoning, or something like that. After about a little over halfway through the semester, I caught myself enjoying an English class. That was weird for me, considering, at the time, I didn’t consider myself a reader or a writer. I never read outside of assigned readings for coursework, nor did I ever write to entertain myself. I didn’t care for either, really. I just knew when starting college, I wanted to major in something that I was just content with. It never occurred to me that I could find a major that I’d actually enjoy, which would then set me up for a career that I would also enjoy. I always thought that with my major I was just okay with getting, I’d get a job that I was just okay with and hope that I wouldn’t become miserable. Or, I could always get one of those factory jobs where people are always losing a finger or two. But I was enjoying this class. So, after about a week of contemplating on becoming an English major, I thought: Sure.

A few semesters rolled by, and calling myself an English major still stuck to me like soapy bubbles. Books became enticing to me to where I found myself starting to read for leisure for the first time in several years. Reading became an acquired hobby for me fairly quickly. Then, after some months, I wanted to give creative writing a try, which was really, really hard. I thought writing would be simple, but it ended up frustrating me over and over, to where I wasn’t writing all that often. Eventually, I was writing as often as I was reading. 

 Because of that one required English class, I am set to graduate in the fall this year with an English degree with an emphasis on Literary Studies. I am extremely thankful that I was forced by general education requirements to take that class. Finding my love for literature and writing may have taken me much longer to find, which also would probably mean I would have gone down the path of getting my degree in whatever and pursuing a career with my whatever degree, landing a job that, at the very most, I’d be okay with. Outside of my degree, I also would not have developed my hobbies of reading and writing, both of which I absolutely love doing. And if I didn’t have these hobbies, if I didn’t have these passions, I’m not really sure who I would be.