What is someone who would go as far as to say he despises reading doing in a course completely suffocated by infinite texts, novels, novellas, and more. I don’t really know…but I do enjoy learning about things that are not often spoken of in everyday conversation, so maybe that’s what’s keeping me here (for now). Being able to hold on to bits of information and spark up a realm of thought that others may not have opened their mind up to is extremely appealing to me, and I feel as if there is a lot of potential for that throughout this course.
I am Raymon Saran, a second year student studying sociology at UBC. I used to be big into sports, but now I’m more into the arts side of things, besides exercising. I grew up in Surrey, with a heavy interest in basketball after my brothers and father, but slowly transitioned to music after taking piano lessons for about 12 years. Near the end of my elementary years I began composing on the piano, and halfway through high school I started producing music electronically through software. Now I have put myself out there as a musician/producer/artist, which has pretty much taken all of the free time I have. Making beats, recording vocals – it just puts me at peace. You can find me @8krayzie8 on Instagram or NomYar on all places you can find music, even YouTube. <- shameless plug haha. I also like to write stories, poems, even just in my personal journal, so the dislike for reading doesn’t really pair well. I don’t want to read, but want others to read my work? Ironic. I take a deep interest in self-reflection and expression and feel like music and writing allow me to put my own spin on it.
When it comes to my expectations for this course, I am hoping to find some literature that I enjoy and for this course to unlock my mind to some new trains of thought and maybe extend me into the world of reading. I don’t have any specific knowledge on Romance literature so for now I am all ears and ready to dive in. However, I do believe that I will end up taking a liking for this course, even though it may not so much be for the reading, but for putting me through an experience that may be outside of my comfort zone – being surrounded by literature.
This first lecture has brought my hopes up, from thinking this class would be boring and nonstop reading to a journey of understanding. I actually found the goals for this course enticing, almost like a challenge, to search for something deeper than these texts as Romance literature, but if they have a further connection. Anyone can read just to read, but putting a background purpose behind it all has pulled me in to stay. Will the effect of these Romance texts hold discussion among one another? I guess we’ll be the judge.