Well, well, well. We’ve officially reached the end and I can confidently say it was a great journey. Whether I was reading a novel that confused the living hell out of me, weirded me out, or made me crazy uncomfortable, I genuinely enjoyed every moment of it. One thing I really enjoyed and wish they implemented more outside of this course was the contract structure. I feel like it made the course so much more unique and really allowed all of us to focus more on the literature and express our thoughts and understanding of the novels in a creative way rather than just doing it for a mark. The freedom built into the course, I feel like, is what played such a huge role in making it the memorable and enjoyable class that it was.

As with almost everything, I have a lot to say, especially when it comes to reflecting on the novels we read throughout the course. Starting off strong with possibly and very controversial and hot take, I think I want to say that I enjoyed reading (drum-roll please) Agostino by Alberto Moravia???? DONT HATE ME ALRIGHT, let me explain. I can’t help but love the vibe of a kid exploring his identity on a beach, vacationing somewhere nice likeeeeee I can’t be the only one who just resonates with that in a way. Now, when I say resonate, I don’t mean I’m relating to that little bo and his weird and lowkey pervy thoughts of his mom, but instead BEACH VACATION ITALY SUMMERTIME. I think finals week has me craving a vacation and reflecting on the setting of Agostino is NOT helping me overcome it. If I were to pick a runner-up, I would probably pick The Shrouded Woman by María Luisa Bombal because wow wow wow did I find that novel beautiful. I am a sucker for anything that touches upon the experiences of women and womanhood in general because, not only do i love being a woman, but I love hearing other womenbtalk about their lives and experiences as well, fictional or real. As i type this out, I’m kind of starting to realize that I would probably switch the two, but you know what? Whatever, I’ll let it be.

Most of all, I want to thank Professor Beasley-Murray, Daniel, and Tesi for making this class an absolute pleasure to take. All your hard work and dedication made RMST 202 an unforgettable course for all of us and words genuinely cannot express my gratitude. I hope, for you three, that this class was as much of a pleasure to teach as it was for me, and I’m sure the rest of my peers, to take.

My question for OUR LAST BLOG POST OF RMST 2023W2 OMGGGGGG is what made this course the most enjoyable for you? Was it a book, the blogs, the interactive discussion classes, or something entirely different?