What made me become an English major?

In her blog, Rosanna discussed the "touchstones" that made her want to become an English major. That made me start thinking about the motivations that prompted me to want to be an English teacher. The truth is, there is no moment or work that definitively made me want to major in English. My thoughts wandered to my high school English classes and what inspired me there. Holden Caulfield and his wanderings of course related to my melodramatic high school self. The free-spirited Gatsby was always one of my favorites, and I was enchanted immediately by Beowulf and his heroic deeds, as well as the foreboding alliteration of each line. I was also immediately pulled into the world of Shakespeare through the language of Julius Caesar. By the time I got through Romeo and Juliet in the junior year and Hamlet in my senior year, I was instantly hooked. Maybe it was not a single thing that made me love English and want to make it my career. Maybe it was everything. Looks like I am going to have to revisit some of my old favorites.