I’ve always wanted to have an intellectual conversation about Literature, using words like Post-Modernism, Structuralism, Romanticism and use phrases like, “Oh, I think the writing style is a bit too mid-western for my taste.”

I honestly don’t even know what that phrase means, but I’ve heard someone using it.

I want to be able to talk about Shakespeare, about Frost, about Woolf, about Plath, about Joyce and about so many other authors, playwrights and poets as if it were my first language. I want to go through the day quoting Shakespeare. I want to have a poem in my head for nearly every situation.

Oh your significant other just dumped you? “‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Lord Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H.

Are you in love? “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.

Tired of being courted when all you want is to be alone? “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” Much Ado About Nothing, Act 1 Scene 1.

Some life advice? “If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it.” Beyonce’s Single Ladies.

How about something incredibly profound: “It was as if the five acts of a play that had been very exciting and moving were now over and she had lived a lifetime in them..” Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. 

I just really love Literature. I don’t know where I would be without it. But the thing I realise, with every book I read, is how little I’ve read and how much more I want to read.

I want to be caressed by Literature’s warm hands, I want to be serenaded by Literature. I want Literature all around me. 

And in case you haven’t guessed, I’m minoring in English.