“It’s Never Too Late to be What you Might Have Been”, Marisa Hopp

When I graduated from high school, I had written in my yearbook that I would “grow up” to be a professor of English literature at Stanford University. At the age of 18 it was a dream that seemed within grasp as I had loved my literature classes throughout school and my English teachers had had a profound effect on shaping my interest in reading and analyzing literature.

However, the summer between the last year of high school and beginning university became a turning point in my life that would create a chasm between who I dreamed of being and who I had to be. In July of that year my mum passed away from cancer, leaving me without a familial safety net and creating the immediate need to find a way to support myself. While I continued to study literature and history at university, the fog of grief robbed me of any joy from the program. As I neared the end of my undergraduate degree it became clear that going on to graduate school, a requirement for a professor job, was too much of a financial risk for me at the time. Instead, I was able to obtain a government job which, while it provided me with a salary for my basic needs, took me away from discussing novels.

After a decade in the public service, I had obtained the stability that had eluded me at 18 but I was unfulfilled with the project I was working on. I soon found myself returning to the familiar desire for a career that involved interacting with literature. I took leave from my job and went back to school to get my master’s degree in English literature—finally getting to follow the path I had set for myself as a teenager!

In graduate school, it became clear that I thrived being able to read, research, and talk about all kinds of works and I wanted this feeling in my day-to-day life. Unfortunately, there are so few tenure track jobs in the humanities, so I carved out a business idea: Le Salon Literary Discussions.

Based on the historical Parisian literary salon, I set out to create a space where people of all backgrounds could come together and discuss great literature. Every month I hold virtual discussion on classic literature and have recently expanded to include modern novels and author events. So far, I have had participants from across Canada, in the United States, and even Brazil! My Further Reading Blog provides avid readers everything from plain language explanations of critical theory to literature-themed cocktails to exclusive interviews with authors. My business not only allows me to put my education and research skills to good use, but I also get to meet people around the world who love to talk about what they are reading.