I feel it is of the utmost importance for me to start my second blog post with an honest statement. So here it goes.

I switched from Fine Arts to English as my major in the first week of school. ENGL 109 was a required class, and I was stuck between picking a Ms. Sara’s class and another professor whom I have heard is also very good. So I went on ratemyprofessors.com (a tool I have never used before) and found both the teachers that I was looking for. Both reviews were surprisingly very good, but somehow I felt my conscience picking Ms. Sara. If I was told to explain why I picked her, I would not answer, simply because I had no valid response. I was also considering how either of the class fits into my timetable (now isn’t that more logical), and depending on what day it falls on, I was looking at the time it would take for me to walk from one class to another. I tend to be punctual to class (only) and so I wanted to prevent myself from arriving late. I even called my aunt, and explained my dilemma, and she plainly pointed out that I sounded like I wanted to go to Sara’s class. Alas, I am now happily enrolled in Ms. Sara’s class!

Thank you so much my conscience. I will forever be grateful for your devoted services.

Currently, I am enrolled in two English courses; Fiction is the other one. Although I received credits because I took English at higher level in high school, I still enrolled in Fiction and I am really enjoying the class. We recently handed in a close reading on a passage from The Great Gatsby, a book I like a lot, but I was disappointed with my grade, especially because I thought I did a better job. The grade thought otherwise. On the bright side, we will soon do another close reading so I will definitely strive to perform better in that one, after incorporating my previous feedback.

However, my other courses do not allow me to explore my creative side simply because the concepts are already defined and don’t ask for your opinion. You cannot go against what Adam Smith said blah blah. Yes, you guessed right, I am talking about Economics. I like my Arts and Business courses more than Economics because it reminds me of Geography back in high school. I can relate to concepts that I learned previously and apply them in my understanding for this course. Moreover, we recently started team discussions for ARBUS 101, and I really like these because they allow you to research individually and then contribute to the discussions on Learn. At the same time, it lets you better fathom the concepts learned in class because you are now researching real life applications, discovering strengths and weakness, where companies went wrong and where they are striving with their various products. Right now, I am currently researching about Keurig Kold and what went wrong with their product. This writing doesn’t have to be creative, but at least it’s not as depressing as Economics. I use the word depressing because it is straightforward and does not require your input, apart from the fact that you are studying for it. No essays, no research assignments, no homework, which I personally do not identify with since there is no way in which you are tracking your progress, apart from what shows up on Learn after you have written your midterm. I really am trying to like Economics though because my next midterm is in less than two weeks and pessimism demotivates me.

On the bright side, as you readers may have noticed, half of my title is in Spanish. This was my attempt at the language of love, since it is one of the courses I aspire to take in the Winter term. Speaking of courses in the future, I am very grateful for ARBUS 100, even though it’s a non-credited course, simply because it made me write out courses I would like to take next year. This got me to confirm the ARBUS breadth requirements, and explore other courses I may enjoy under my two majors. As a result, I added all of these into my portfolio that I recently submitted. This would hopefully help me keep track.

As for the skills part, I am still immensely grateful for my younger self who chose novels as her escape from reality. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie mentioned in her Ted Talk The Danger of a Single Story that “stories are a form of escapism.” They really are. While others prefer going to nightclubs or parties, I will wholeheartedly be more than happy to have hot coffee and a Jeffrey Archer novel. Through reading various genres and authors, I developed good vocabulary at a young age and it has been improving ever since. It influences my diction, and I feel happy each time I use sophisticated language because it shows progress, and I have always appreciated progress, no matter how small it may be. For my Academic Writing course, I am looking forward to writing the Rhetorical Analysis essay, simply because it is going to be challenging for me and I embrace challenge like a childhood friend. I haven’t studied rhetoric before, so I am excited to learn about it. I have chosen Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue as my prompt. I look forward to analyzing her beautiful words and her relationship with the English Language.