End of Semester Thoughts

As I sit in the library, having edited my last final paper of the semester, delaying submitting it to my professor because that always feels so conclusive, I have time to reflect on the semester. I'll give you a tidbit from each of my classes that you can maybe use to impress your friends.

The Political Wisdom of Homer
This was one of my favorite classes. It falls under political philosophy if we're categorizing it. We asked questions like "Do you deserve a good grade if you study? Is it unjust if you get a bad grade?" and "Does Odysseus even want to go home to Ithaca? Is Odysseus selfish?" You can learn a lot about human nature by looking at what people tell themselves, i.e. that the gods protect them if they sacrifice to them, etc. The final paper I wrote for this course talked about the gods and nature, and how Homer showed the power of nature, but called it an act of the gods, to get his audience accustomed to accepting that nature is more powerful than the gods. Don't steal my idea.

Interesting tidbit: The first recorded instance of the word "nature" appears in The Odyssey. And Penelope is badass.

Senior Seminar in English
This class was with one of my favorite professors, and everyone in the class was a senior English major, so the class discussion was really great. We went over a bunch of the classics, which are important, because everything stems from them. I wrote my final paper on governesses and mental illness in English nineteenth century literature, using Jane Eyre and "The Turn of the Screw" as the works that I focused on. Really interesting stuff there.

Interesting tidbit: Charlotte Bronte was a governess! And former governesses made up the majority of patients in insane asylums at that time. So pay your babysitter well.

My other two classes were Writing the TV Pilot and Intro Computer Music. Both were very interesting and a lot of fun to be in, but the creative aspects are more difficult to summarize here. But I learned a lot of good skills! I hope to employ them in the future. Go creativity!