I was also an English major with a creative writing concentration (my parents were pretty horrified when I switched from being a history major - my father in particular was not-so-secretly hoping that I would be like my cousin with a history BA, who went straight to law school after undergrad). I had my work published in the college literary magazine, out of a pool of hundreds of submissions, but since then, I've managed to get the idea in my head that no "real" publication would want my work.
I've also had approximately 4 million people* tell me I'm wrong about that, but I can't kick myself in the pants enough to keep writing and especially, sending things out for publication. It was much easier to motivate myself to do those things when I was surrounded by other people interested in writing every single day I went to school or work (editorial jobs, university classes, working as a writing tutor, etc.)
*OK, slight exaggeration
MarsGirl, there's a literary magazine called The Sun (not the British tabloid) that publishes short memoirs, and they don't shy away from submissions about difficult life experiences. They are also officially always open to unsolicited submissions, which makes it really hard to get published, but it's also a sign that they actually read every essay sent their way. If I ever get brave enough to send my stuff out, I intend to try to get published there.
I also passed one of the teaching cert exams required by New York state, "just in case," but never took the rest, because I'm quite sure I don't want to handle a classroom full of kids. I ended up working in offices like everyone else.
