Reflection Blog

If you looked at my high school transcript you would see a clear theme for all the classes that I took over four years. Looking at the STEM classes I took, you would notice a long list of chemistries, computer sciences, and biologies--a handful of them AP classes. Glance over at the social sciences and languages and you would see the bare minimum. I took three years of spanish, humanities and advanced English for the first three years. You could safely detect where my academic strengths are--math, science, anything left-brained. It could also be identified where my weakness are, (language obviously) and why I’m not majoring in English next year. However, as you reached the end of my transcript you would see a class and, based on the previous 40 classes, would think it was a typo: AP Literature. Cause that makes sense, right? No. For some reason(s) I decided to take AP English this year. I was concerned about going to college without any high-level English courses under my belt. Also, I didn’t like the idea of some of my friends getting huge advantages when writing college essays. I know that last years class would have been best to learn craft, but this course helped a ton (I didn’t have a strong base. Ha.) Now looking back at it, taking AP english was a great choice. It expanded my English prowess and made me more of a well-rounded student.

Fiction v. Nonfiction

Up until this point, I had read only fiction independent reading books. My last book was Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden. This book is a potrayal of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979, where the US Embassy in Iran was stormed by an Iranian militia and held hostage to further their political agenda. The 53 hostages were held in the embassy for 444 days, a miserable 15-month span. Between Guests of the Ayatollah and The Collector (A similar fiction book I read last time), there were some very noticable differences between the nonfiction and fiction titles. The nonfiction authors have less creative freedom than the fiction authors. Given that the nonfiction books don’t reflect the event 100%, the author still has a timeline that he can’t veer from too much. This has two effects, one of which is that it makes the nonfiction books more realistic. Since the nonfiction books are based on an actual event, the plot events will seem less far-fetched than some of the fiction books (Come on Suzanne Collins, no one wins the Hunger Games twice). However, it makes nonfiction books less suspensful. For the same reason, because the events are totally realistic, the book will have believable and sometimes predictable outcomes.   

Winding up English Class

This is my last straight forward english class of my educational career (hopefully). I am sure that there are many of us in the same boat as me. I’m goin to Nebraska-Lincoln next year in the Raikes School of Computer Science and Business. My english requirements will be filled by a special class of the program with both business and computer science integrated into it. I am semi-anticipating it because english is not my favorite class (litotes for the win!) and not having a strictly english class won’t bother me at all. However, with the class scope narrowing, school will be much different. I won’t be taking courses in the traditional core class structure, with all of my social science credits fulfilled too. It shouldn’t be trouble, but you know how significant change can bring about hesitation.  

One thing is for sure, I will be happy that this is my last english class. Although it has been my hardest english class to date in high school, I have certainly had more fun being with my close friends and learned a lot more too. I admit to taking the easy way out until this year...which made this year harder. Darn. Luckily I am/was in good hands. Overall, english class wasn’t the beast I had expected it to be. I had good teachers  all four years and never got overwhelmed (which is not a testament to superb english skills). I guess I must say: it’s been real english. No, I don’t expect to part ways and never see you again...but my biggest concern in high school turned out okay.

There is No Place Like Nebraska

There is one specific poem that I will never forget. The poem--turned song shortly after--has been played by and for me thousands of times; ‘There is No Place Like Nebraska’. Writing a recent blog post about limericks, I had completely overlooked this because I am only familiar with it in song. The two-versed poem follows a limericks meter and rhyme scheme (almost), but is not meant to be a joke. The words, which will forever be in my heart, go:

“There is no place like Nebraska,

Dear old Nebraska U,

Where the girls are the fairest,

The boys are the squarest,

Of any old place that I knew.

There is no place like Nebraska,

Where we are all true blue,

We will all stick together

In all kinds of whether,

For dear old Nebraska U.”

This poem was later turned into a march by John Phillip Sousa. The two verses both follow the rhyme scheme ABCCB, and each line has between 6-8 syllables. In the song format, the C rhyming line are said faster, to make it sound more like a true limerick. As another similarity, both B rhyming lines use masculine rhymes, while the C rhyming lines both use feminine rhymes. I now present to you ‘There is No Place Like Nebraska’ in song form performed by the Cornhusker Marching Band. 

Hooray for English!

I walked into English today thinking that I would be walking out crying 90 minutes later from a near-impossible poetry in class essay. Much to my approval, Mr. Mullins had a surprise for us. When he announced what movie that we would be watching I figured it would be one of those school documentaries which I napped during. However, I was very pleased with Dead Poet Society. I haven’t really been a fan of old movies, and figured that such a movie about English wouldn’t attract me at all. Dead Poet Society (or the 50-ish minutes that we watched) was a very interesting movie. I think that part of it is due to that Robert Sean Leonard, Robin Williams and Red Foreman (no clue his actor name) are some of my favorite actors. 

Not considering the cinematic elements that make movies appealling, I am legitimately intrigued with the Dead Poet Society concept. The in-depth and personal interactions that the characters have with poetry is very interesting. This movie sheds some light on the empowering and enthralling side of poetry, which is much more attracting than the view of intelligent, classy poetry that I hold. The structure and literary elements of poetry don’t do much for me, but I think this Dead Poet Society stuff is really cool. I’m excited to finish the movie!

Time for a couple Limericks!

My favorite type of poetry by far are limericks. What attracts me to them are their humorous and nonsensical nature. I did not know until today that the purpose of limericks is to offer comic relief, I had assumed that only the popular ones were side-splitting. There is a specific structure for limericks: an (AABBA) rhyme scheme and a definite meter sequence where the A-rhyming line have equal syllables and the B-rhyming lines have half(ish) that number of syllables (i.e. 10,10,6,6,10). One of the most popular limericks is the Popeye theme song:

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man,

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man,

I’m strong to the finish

‘Cuz I eat my spinach

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.

I have searched the web and read hundreds of limericks (I got a little sidetracked) to try to find the most comical limericks. I have found that I enjoy reading limericks so much because the make me laugh and I don’t have to think. In my opinion, here are the 3 funniest limericks:

A young schizophrenic named Struther, 

Who learned of the death of his Brother, 

Said, "I know that its bad, 

But I don't feel too sad.

After all, I still have each other.

(Shout out to my fellow chemistry and physics fans)

Archimedes, the well known truth-seeker,

Jumping out of his bath, cried “Eureka!”

He ran half a mile,

Wearing only a smile,

And became the very first streaker.

There once was a girl named Irene,

Who lived on distilled kerosene

But she started absorbin’

A new hydrocarbon,

And since then has never benzene!

Holla if you got that last one. Ha! A complete list of limericks for your enjoyment can be found at http://freewebs.com/limericks/.

The Importance of Point of View

The Collector by John Fowles, my second independent reading book for this semester, has been my favorite book that I have read this year. I think being able to choose your books more freely for this inquiry project has allowed me to read more enjoyable books. The Collector centers on Frederick Clegg, an avid butterfly collector who has crippled social skills. He struggles to interact with everybody in his community; however, he has an intense infatuation with a local college student, Miranda Grey. Clegg has just won a fortune of money through a football betting pool and schemes to abduct Miranda for his own. The part I enjoyed most about this book is how Fowles uses perspective throughout the novel. The chapters alternate between Clegg and Miranda’s point of view. While one perspective allows a narrow, focused understanding for the audience, two perspectives allow a much broader range of emotions to be revealed to the audience. I found it fascinating to unearth the emotions of both the captor and the captive, far different from the one-sided point of views that are traditionally used in this genre. If you enjoy crime dramas, I strongly suggest that you read The Collector soon.