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The Perks of Being an English Major
by Alex Andy Phuong

The title of this creative work is obviously an allusion to the famous young adult novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was also adapted as a film starring Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.  Some people would regard English Majors as simply college students who spend countless hours reading, and those same critics might question whether or not those college students that they want to criticize would make any significant contribution to society.  It is true that I might never end world hunger or create something that would protect the Earth from an alien invasion (if, of course, other forms of life do exist out there in the universe), but I must admit that I am an English Major who does more than read literature.  I am willing to share with the reader of this piece of writing the perks involved with spending significant amounts of time reading written work made by people who lived hundreds of years ago, and also creating new works of originality, which is exactly what I am doing right now while staring at my computer screen.

As time passed after meeting Julie Andrews at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, I had been fortunate enough to meet other celebrities at that same location.  So far, I have met Jane Fonda, William Friedkin, and Shirley Jones.  I have even met Jane Lynch from the TV show Glee, which unfortunately ended its six-year run recently.  In spite of my sheer adoration for film, it was also a blessing to meet a living literary figure at both Cal State L.A. and at The Last Bookstore.  Meeting José Kozer was a truly unique experience because I had never even heard of him until Dr. Ramey told me about him.  I am honestly speechless when it comes to meeting someone that famous even though I had only known about him for a very short period of my young adult life.  Nevertheless, I was truly blessed to meet incredibly talented individuals that contributed to the world of literature and the cinematic universe.

I can honestly say that I am not sure how to respond to the idea of meeting a living literary icon, but I am grateful for being able to meet a writer like José Kozer.  Meeting creative artists with tremendous talent is the greatest perk of being an English Major, I suppose.  It is true that I might never be a Biology Major at Berkeley, like my brother was, but I am still blessed in so many ways because there are literally millions of people who could only dream about meeting people like José Kozer and the film director of the famous horror film The Exorcist.  And who knows, maybe one day I will be signing books that I wrote for readers who enjoy my writing.  As of now, I just have to wait and see…