humble introductions

Hi!

My name is Neil Sharma! I’m a fifth year student with a major in Psychology and minor in Nutritional Science :)! I really enjoy spending my free time at the gym, hanging out with friends, or wandering through my numerous hobbies (snowboarding, bouldering, cooking, playing electric guitar, working on my car, reading, biking, golfing, watching tv, fixing stuff around the house etc. you get the idea that I very much love to be a jack of all trades). I grew up in the lower mainland, actually studying at a local university for a few years before I transferred out to UBC for more opportunities. I’ve really enjoyed my time here in Vancouver and I’ve been super involved in campus life, whether it’s clubs, grassroots volunteerism, intramurals, residence life, and academia. As this is my last year, I really dialled in on what I enjoy doing so I focus on my studies and everything I love with my remaining time here on our beautiful campus!

I’m taking this class to fulfill my literature requirement, though I’m very intrigued too as I’ve never gotten into this type of literature before. When I was younger I did read a lot of fiction novels such as Alex Rider, Harry Potter, and whatever else I picked up. As I got a bit older I got into more non-fiction and whatever self-help books that were placed on my desk from older brothers and friends (They just thought it was good reads, I promise I’m doing great!) I’m excited to read the books in our course as it’ll be an interesting challenge, all of the authors and books are all completely new to me.

From our lecture this week, I started thinking a lot about the question of “where is the Romance World” in the context of the class. To be frank if I was asked this last week, I’d have said “No clue, isn’t our course about Romance Novels?” I now know that my answer is partially correct and partially wrong ahaha. I think that after I’ve been in the class for the week, I realize that romance studies is very different than other disciplines, but honestly I’m still trying to understand the full picture clearly. I think that as we go through works week by week, I’ll be able to gain perspective through discussion and broaden my horizons on the subject, understanding Romance Studies more clearly.