Can you believe it guys? The end of the school year! Just a week away! The end of the school year is in a week! Wahoo! I am so happy about this information!! The end of the school year! Just a week away, oh wow! Can you believe it? The end of the school year just in a week! It got here so fast!
Okok shit post aside I really did enjoy this course. Although it pushed the boundaries of how fast I could read and summarize books, and how fast I could write a blog post and make two responses to others before the deadline, I think that it was a refreshing break from the content of my other more boring classes. Before writing this blog I took a minute to look back at my week one introduction post and reflect on how the year had went and I think that I am proud of myself for managing to keep up.
Some things that I really enjoyed about this course was the flexibility in my expression of my ideas and the flexibility in the workload. I think that being able to choose how much I wanted to work and having peace of mind in the grade I would be getting for that work was a huge up for this class. But most importantly, I think that the freedom in how I can express what I learned made this course a lot more enjoyable. Usually when I write up my responses for other classes whether it be a literature course or a history or poli sci reading response, I feel like I’m having my soul sucked out of my body because of the rigidity of the assignments that I am doing and the fact that the only person who will be reading my work is the TA who I submit to. In this however, I found myself pretty excited to write my blog post because I could waffle about pretty much whatever aspect of the book that I wanted, and I could do it in a way that was entertaining to me whether that be by trying to make my classmates laugh thru my writing or actually deep diving into a theme in the book that really struck a chord in me. All in all, flexibility was a big theme in this course that had me excited to participate every week.
The second, and I think most important, part of the course that I enjoyed a lot was learning about culture through the literature that I was reading. I found that I could hear a very distinct voice from all of the authors that we read that was inspired by their heritage. I thought that the biggest take-away from Romance Studies as a discipline, was learning things about cultures within the Romance Language Umbrella. After reading the works of these diverse authors, creepy mom complexes and bad boyfriends and all, I couldn’t help but think to my myself: “What a Wonderful World”
BTW: My favourite book was The Hour of the Star
My question for the class: What was your favourite book, and what was your biggest take-away from the course?
Hi Jon! I too feel that my ability to consume and summarize books has greatly increased after this course! The flexibility definitely allowed for creative freedom which I enjoyed! Have a wonderful summer!
Thanks for your post! My fav book was honestly Money to Burn – I found it very thrilling and engaging. I definitely agree that it was nice to have some freedom and flexibility in our thoughts, and to be able to share them in a more relaxed way. Have a great end of term + summer! Maia D.
Hi Jonathan! Thank you for your blogpost. My favorite books were “Money to Burn” and “The Shrouded Woman”. If I had to pick one, I’d probably say “Money To Burn” cause I love action-packed plots and am a sucker for heist stories.
Jonathan, I’m glad you enjoyed the course and didn’t feel you were “having [your] soul sucked out of [your] body” (!). But I will say I don’t think your posts were just “waffle.” Flexibility doesn’t mean the end of standards… indeed, sometimes it brings out the best!
Thanks for all your contributions, and have a great summer!