I thought I would update you guys. I got an IT job, which is not bad for my first job out of college. It's a six month contract, and after I finish I will apply for software engineering jobs. My hope is that with this job on my resume, and my part-time job in college, both employing SQL, Unix, and Java, I will have enough 'credentials' to be taken seriously for software development. In the meanwhile I might want to learn .NET and RoR.
While an English degree is a hurdle in the short run, I think that in the long run I'll be happy that I did it. While it would be nice to be rich, I don't put too much stock in the idea. It's more important to me to be able to live where I want, like the people I work with and have fun on the job. And, ultimately, it's the immaterial things that make me happy.
NOTE: The scary thing about my job is the commute. I don't yet have a car (my cousin totalled my old one) so I'm biking ten miles to work every day. There and back. It's a nightmare. I hate biking across intersections. I hate biking across traffic. SCARY.
ALSO: I'll be getting a car in the next 2-3 weeks and then I'll be driving to work every day from my new apartment. It will be a 40-70 minute commute depending on traffic. This is also scary. I haven't driven more than a dozen times in the past five years. I only just started driving on the highway a few weeks ago. Is anyone else scared by driving? It seems to me that smart people are scared of it and stupid people aren't - because the stupid people don't understand the physics of accidents!