Amani, ‘12

How’s it going, Prospectives?

Hopefully all is well, and I am sure you all eagerly anticipating all that senior (or maybe junior) year has to offer.  This week was quite busy, but I definitely made the most of it.

My week started off early Monday morning, when I got up at 7:30am to login to registration—I wanted to drop one of my classes because I was not ready to take on a 5-unit course load this semester.  To my chagrin, after dropping the class I realized that the rest of my classes were on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—and all of them pretty much back-to-back.  Oh joy, I thought.  What was I thinking?  And then I saw that my two English classes were 15 minutes apart and 75 minutes each.  What was I thinking?!  I pored over other my options, looking for available courses that I could substitute in order to have a more balanced class schedule, but at the end of the hour, my schedule remained the same.  I did not know how my semester would go with such busy days followed by completely free days.  I knew that I would definitely have to manage my time wisely.

And looking back over my week, I think I did fairly well.  I really enjoy my Intro to Creative Writing class, and I am excited to see what creative works come out of it.  My Interpersonal Communication class is also pretty interesting, and it even made me consider changing my desired major of English to that of Rhetoric and Communications or even Sociology.  I went back and forth in my head and with others about this possible decision, and at the end of the week I was still quite unsure of what I wanted to do.  However, on Friday I met with a professor that I had last semester for an English course, and he made things a bit clearer for me. 

After talking with me for about half an hour about the pros and cons of different potential majors, he mentioned that I seemed to be a student who would be interested in an American Studies major.  I did not exactly know what “American Studies” entailed, so I asked him to elaborate, and he enlightened me on the matter.  Learning that the American Studies major allows for interdisciplinary study within the ranges of history, literature, foreign language, rhetoric, sociology, art, and many more, I became very excited.  It sounded like just the thing I was looking for.  My professor told me that my desire to explore a variety of subject matters is something he calls intellectual curiosity, and with the things I am interested in exploring, the American Studies major would probably be a good solution.  He did encourage me to do some research about it before I decided, so that I could determine if it was really something I was interested in pursuing, and since then I have done just that, and I do believe I have found the major I desire.  Nevertheless, I will see how things turn out by the end of next semester when I am meant to declare a major.

In other news, Saturday was quite eventful, with our Oliver Hill Scholars Retreat lasting from 8:30am to about 3:15pm.  Yes, it was long; yes, it was exhausting.  But it was also fun.  The morning started with breakfast foods and business matters, and the afternoon was filled with all sorts of games and activities meant to produce cohesion of the group.  The last event was the high ropes course, or Team Odyssey, as it is officially named.  Last year I participated in this part of the retreat, but this year I opted out because I am not fond of unstable heights (i.e. tightrope-like cables).  I tried it last year just to say I had done it, but I was past that risk-taking this time.  There were others along with me who opted out, and we sat with Dr. Cade and had a group discussion about our expectations for the school year.  All in all, I would say the retreat was a success, as the group bonded in numerous ways.

Saturday night, I went out to a party that was hosted by a few of the people who dance with me in Ngoma.  I had a lot of fun, and it was a nice way to close the week.  Remember, when you work hard, reward yourself. 

Best wishes to you all!

Amani

High ropes course