Introduction

My name is Rachel Rogers and I am a junior at KSU. I just transferred to KSU after graduating with an associates degree in Journalism from Darton College. I chose to be an English major because I enjoy studying literature. I also enjoy expressing myself through writing. In high school I simply viewed English as an easy class, not something that I would be pursuing as an undergraduate.

When I began my collegiate studies, I was a business administration major, intending to work in human resources management upon graduation. Fortunately, I was blessed with the opportunity to intern at an insurance company for a summer. While I was at this job I came to the horrible, yet freeing, realization that I was not cut out to work in the business workplace. I was able to change my major to Journalism, take 21 credit hours during my last semester at Darton, and still graduate on time. Needless to say, my family was surprised with my seemingly last minute switch from business administration to journalism, but they chose to support me regardless. My switch from journalism to English was a nearly seamless transition, so no one was really surprised or less supportive.

I recently visited my high school and paid a visit to my senior English teacher in order to let her know that I had finally decided to major in English. "Of course you are," was her simple response. She knew, three years ago, that I would ultimately end up in her field, possibly even in her profession. Upon graduation, I am intending to go to graduate school to pursue a master's degree. Then I may teach at a university level, but it really depends on what God's plan is for my life. Currently I am just progressing with my English degree while waiting to see what the future has in store for me.

I do believe that people's perspectives about literacy and literature are changing in the United States. For instance, the term literate once meant that a person simply had the ability to read. Today being literate requires the ability to not only read books, but technology as well. In today's society everything is wireless and instantaneous. People must be able to comprehend and also function within today's technologically savvy generation in order to be considered literate. I also believe people's perspectives about literature have changed. When my grandmother was in high school, there was great emphasis placed on studying "the Classics" within an English classroom. Today we still study the Classics; However, we do not only study the Classics. We study newer works in addition to the ancient works. Also, the average American reads less now than ever before. I believe this is due, in part, to our society's increased technology. Today people have "better" things to do with their time than to sit down and read a book, like watching videos on youtube and constantly tweeting about their meaningless lives on Twitter.