A Talk from a Future Professor
I want you to think about something. You don’t have to raise your hand, but just think about it. How many of you are enjoying what you study, or do for a living? Judging from the looks on your faces and how my friends always complain during exam periods, my guess is ‘probably not much’. Well, that’s not the case for everyone. I’m an English Literature major in the middle of my junior year, and the past three years of my life have been the best. Exams don’t give me any stress, and, though I wince when receiving brutal feedbacks on my essays from my professors, I know that I am gradually getting better. Choosing to study literature in university is the best decision I have made yet.
Literature enables us to visit time periods, places, and even situations we cannot ever face in reality. What’s more, we are able to take that imagination into another level and bring it back to our reality. Take a look at Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, for example. The story describes how Gregory Samsa’s life changes after he turns from an ordinary businessman to a giant insect overnight. Other than the fact that the short story provides us a bizarre picture of what it would be like to turn into a giant insect without really knowing why, which I am thrilled that it only happens in novels, it also gives us insights about our life and our society that we are living in now. Gregory Samsa still had a human soul; he had just taken a form of a cockroach. Yet, he is led to a lonely death from his injury afflicted by his once-loving father who had mercilessly bulleted an apple at Gregory’s belly. From this situation alone, there are so many things you could ask yourselves. There is the question of self; am I not myself if I take a different form? What defines ‘me’? Or you could connect this to the coronavirus era; I personally was reminded of how particular social classes such as Christians or homosexuals were branded with the word ‘confirmed case’ and shunned from our society, as Gregory was shut out from his family. As can be seen, literature is a representation of our reality, helping us set the directions we live by in our lives.
Living in a world where rapid currents of incidents often sweep us from our feet and where it is too easy to abandon the values we pursue, literature has been my shelter. Reading classics and constantly hardening the grounds I am standing on has been such a comforting experience. I want to be studying to become an English Literature professor at my school in ten years, and I would like to share this reveling experience of reading with my future students as well. I want to be a scholar who finds new meanings in books and connect the times of the past with the present, setting up a guideline for the times of future.
There are three rules I always follow to pursue this dream. First, pay attention in class and take advantage of special events in my department. This I am doing an excellent job at – I always love going to classes, and plan to request a seminar to one of my favorite professors on the topic of ‘Food in English Literature’. Second, take classes from other departments that cover literature, history, philosophy, and religion. I’ve learned over the years that the world is interconnected and broadening my eyes to the world helps me understand my major better. Finally, and most importantly, have faith in myself. Every day I see my friends applying for internships, some of them even getting jobs, and I can’t help but worry about my future. I always try not to let this uncertainty overwhelm me, and believe that I will get to a level where I am satisfied with my academic-self.. And even then, I won’t stop learning.
When nosy relatives come over to my house, they say “Dear, it’s time to wake up. Books don’t exactly feed you”. That is true, and becoming a professor is going to be very difficult. But everything is difficult nowadays, and I would like to do something that genuinely makes me happy, something that may not literally feed my stomach but does feed my heart. After all, what is a human being without direction? I hope all of you here achieves what you want in your life in the next ten years. Next time, for me, I’ll see you all as an English Literature professor in my school.
Thank you for listening.