“A Day in the Life of an English Major” is pretty much what it says on the tin: a look at how the elusive Rice English major spends their time each day. Do they really spend six hours a day reading Mark Twain up in a tree, as the pre-med students suspect? Do they hide out in the library waxing poetic about Sylvia Plath, like the Econ majors hypothesize? Find out in this month’s edition of “A Day in the Life of an English Major.”
Today, the English major in question is Maggie Smith, a sophomore from Martel who grew up in Kansas City and went to high school in Denton, Texas. Maggie’s area of specialization within the English major is Culture and Social Change, and she loosely plans to work at a nonprofit and write YA novels after graduation.
(Full disclosure: Maggie is also on the editorial staff of The Wild Grain, and kindly agreed to be our guinea pig for this first piece. How magnanimous of her.)
Here’s how a typical day goes for Maggie:
8:10 AM- My phone alarm goes off, and I start getting ready for the day. I am the farthest thing from a morning person, and usually not this chipper, but today I have something to look forward to…
8:30 AM- The Thresher crossword puzzle! I like to do crossword puzzles during breakfast as a reward for successfully starting the morning, and the Rice Thresher’s puzzles have fun themes. Now THIS is when the day really starts looking up.
9:15 AM- Class Number One- Shakespeare and Gender. The small size of this class makes for a friendly environment, and my favorite part is actually getting there a few minutes early so that we can share our thoughts on our current reading before the formal discussion begins.
11:00 AM- Class Number Two- Biology for Voters, which is in this gorgeous building you see here: Rayzor Hall. As much as I love my English classes, the occasional STEM course can be a breath of fresh air.
12:15 PM- Lunchtime! Like a hobbit, I need many hardy meals throughout the day to keep me energized, so I’m often starving by this point in the day. I usually eat at Martel so that I can catch up with my suitemates and friends about how their days are going.
1:00 PM- After lunchtime, it’s crunch time. (See what I did there?) But really, this is the part of the day where I hunker down at an outside table somewhere and frantically churn through readings, Canvas discussion posts, and whatever assignments loom closest on the deadline horizon.
2:45 PM- Class Number Three- Century of Black Women Writers. This is the second course I’ve taken with Dr. Margarita Castromán Soto, and I love her interactive teaching style and the inviting, thoughtful environment her lessons create.
4:00 PM- Care for a swim? I was on a swim team for about ten years, and I’ve recently been getting re-acclimated to water workouts at the Rec competition pool as Covid has calmed down.
5:30 PM- After a workout, shower, and walk back to Martel, I’m definitely ready for dinner. It’s a good bet that my friend group will spend some time making weekend plans before we head our separate ways to study and finish more assignments.
6:30 PM- I work as a Tech TA on campus several days a week, so this is when I’ll hunker down at the OIT headquarters to man the on-call phone and do more homework during my downtime.
9:00 PM- I’ve just come back from my TA shift, and now I get to talk to my little brother! I try to call all my family members at least once a week, and it’s really nice to see their faces as I look forward to visiting home over the holidays.
9:30 PM- At this point, I usually settle in for movie time. I’m a movie fiend and love watching a good action, comedy, or even horror movie before bed. Here, you can see that my suitemate and I were watching Red Notice (2021), which I would give a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
12:30 AM- I try to head off to bed around this time. I’ll probably do a few stretches, say goodnight to my suitemates, and drift off with my trusty bear, Giuseppe. That’s a typical day for me!
Come back next month for another issue of “A Day in the Life of an English Major.” Any English major who wants to be featured in an upcoming issue can let us know via the Submissions page. Until next time!