These
past few weeks have gone by so quickly, and I have learned much in the
process. Two weeks ago was perhaps the
hardest week of my college career, with four major tests and two group projects
due all within the time span of a few days.
During that week, I got much better about budgeting my time, and I
learned how to study more efficiently.
Luckily, I should not have that many tests and homework due all at once
again until finals hit.
One
of the classes I have found to be fascinating this semester is my Literature
and Civilization II class. I love how in
this class, we do a great deal of experiential learning, and are not forced to
memorize loads of information or take tedious tests. This class is discussion based, and it is
interesting to hear so many differing opinions within the class, with everyone
remaining respectful of one another’s opinions.
We recently read some quotes from Thoreau and a few different Hemingway
short stories. I vaguely remember
reading a book by Thoreau during my freshman year of high school, and the main
thing I remember about it is how much I disliked it. Reading Thoreau for a second time, this was
no longer the case. My professor did an
awesome job of assigning us the most meaningful and thought-provoking Thoreau
pieces, and I was actually intrigued after reading them. Our class was able to have some great
discussion on what Thoreau was trying to say through his writing, and whether
or not his ideas are still relevant today.
While I don’t think I will be rushing to the bookstore to buy Walden, I did truly enjoy the Thoreau
unit and am glad I learned more about his life and his values.
The
Hemingway short stories were much darker than I had originally
anticipated. This was my first
experience reading Hemingway’s work, and while the stories were often gloomy,
they were interesting and brought to light many controversial topics. Hemingway utilized an “iceberg theory” when
writing his stories, through which he deleted the unimportant details of the
story and did not explicitly discuss underlying themes. This technique enables the reader to come to
his or her own conclusions and generate unique interpretations of what the
story is attempting to demonstrate. I
find this theory to be powerful, as it enables me to finish reading an entire
story in a few short minutes, and then generate my own opinions as to what the
author was attempting to infer. I will
definitely be reading more Hemingway stories in the future, and am thankful that
I was introduced to his writing style.
On
a completely different note, another important lesson I learned a couple of
days ago was to always back up my computer.
I had thought that my computer backed up its files on its own, but I
learned the hard way that this is not the case.
Two days ago, my hard drive completely failed and erased
everything. Every document I have ever
created in my college career is now gone forever, and this unfortunately
included a few blogs that I had not yet uploaded and will now have to
rewrite. So if you are reading this and
realizing that you have not backed up your computer, I recommend doing this
immediately, so you do not have to learn the hard way as I did.
Overall,
I have learned a great deal throughout these past few weeks, and I am looking
forward to seeing what else I will learn during the rest of the semester.
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