Well, I bet that you're sitting in your chair, reading this and thinking, "What in the world is a 'shutterfly?'” It is not a real word, but it is a word that I just created to describe myself. You see, the first that thing that you need to understand about me, Amy Freeman, is that I LOVE butterflies! With this growing butterfly obsession, I have become a shutterfly. A shutterfly is a person who chases butterflies with their camera in order to capture as many still-life images of the magnificent butterfly. Shutterflies are also easily distracted by this winged-wonder. They will, well, I will be fully involved in a deep conversation, capture a glimpse of that colorful, delicate, gossamer butterfly and all of a sudden you see my head turn and trail the fluttering butterfly across the landscape and hear a gleeful "butterfly" escape from my lips. Such is the life of a true shutterfly. ;)
One of the true beauties of being an English major is that you can create your own words. Anyways, my name is Amy and I'm 29 years old. I just recently returned to Kennesaw State and I also changed my major as well. My original major was for Early Childhood Education but a lot of factors came into play during the Spring Semester and I decided that pursuing a degree in English gave me a broader range of opportunities. I’m kind of on the fence right now between coming back and pursuing a Master’s degree to teach English or pursuing a Master’s degree in Professional Writing.
I’m really blessed to have some amazing friends who are really supportive of my choices regarding my major and the possible careers that I want to pursue with my life. My mom and my step father, on the other hand, are not supportive of my dreams. They believe that I am wasting my time, but I really believe that literature can be a tool that bridges social and cultural gaps within our world. My step father would love for me to pursue a degree with computers and technology because I always have to fix his computer, but he doesn’t understand that although I may grasp a limited understanding of computers – there is no passion for hard drives, RAMS, or source coding within my bones. Literature has always been a prominent passion in my life.
I understand the purpose of social media, the media and texting, but I fear that they pose a threat to literature and literacy. In today’s society it is becoming the norm for children to spend their time playing video games, watching television, tweeting, texting, or playing on Facebook. Imagination is dwindling. Children no longer need to create their own fantasy worlds; one click of a button and they’re instantly plugged in. The growing disinterest in reading and the substitution of a good old fashion treasure hunt within those sacred, white pages of a book leave a bitter taste burning in the back of my throat. The thought that children will not learn the art of cursive writing in school saddens me, yet they learn all the lingo and jargon for texting and tweeting.
I chose to become an English major because I love to read, I love to write and I want to pass down my passion of literature to the up and coming generations who have been swept away in the tsunami of social media. I want to help children and teenagers reconnect to their imaginations through either writing books or teaching the beauty and simplicity of the classics and mix things up with a diverse selection of great texts that will hopefully ignite a passion for imagination and reading within their hearts and souls.
