Course Summary

Path Reflection:
Over the past 15 weeks in this class I've explored many different facets of this University, as well as a few other places. I've definitely noticed some trends in my event attendance, as well as learning more about myself in regards to my interests and disinterests.

Let's start with trends. I attended a lot of events put on by the Women's resource center, which makes sense because I have a pretty active interest in a lot of social issues surrounding women's and LGBT issues, as well a social activism. A few of the lectures I chose to attend revolved around education, which is a large part of my future, so it makes sense that I chose those events. I didn't really attend anything that strayed too far from the beaten path, except for that one really terrible psych lecture. I'm not bothered by the fact that I didn't branch out too much because for the most part I enjoyed most of the events that I went to and I could take things away from almost all of them.

One event that surprisingly meant a lot to me was the lecture by Keith Boykin. I think more than anything he was just a really great guy, and he inspired me to try things in new ways that might be more difficult, but overall probably more satisfying. I really enjoyed the fact that he was very honest in his discussion with us which also seemed to reflect in the stories he was telling us and how he reacts with other people. I liked that the adversity in his life only pushed him to try harder instead of becoming broken and immobilized by it. I hope to take this philosophy with me for the rest of my life. I stuck to it for most of the semester and things became much less difficult to deal with.

The event that I disliked the most was the psychology brown bag. Gino can back me up on that. It was just painful to watch. Also, for future reference I do not advise bringing curry into a very small room. Some brave soul thought it was a good idea, and the boy who was sitting next to me looked like the smell was going to make him vomit. Glad we dodged a bullet on that one.

As for the layout of this class, I'm not sure if I like the freedom or hate it. It's definitely a little bit of both. I think for the most part I wish that the class was based on art lectures, which defeats the purpose of the class, I know, but I definitely didn't experience any life-changing realizations from any of the events I attended. Maybe if we were allowed one or two lectures in our major it would have been a little bit better. I definitely think that would have held my interest a little more. That way we had some enrichment there as well as in other areas of our live. I also think the freedom was a little bit weird at times. Being your own instructor in a way can be a bit intimidating, but also freeing. Am I making any sense?

If I could change one thing about my path for the course, I just wish that I would have taken more time to investigate my classmates blogs more, as well as befriending people to go to lectures with. I benefit from things like this the most when I have someone to discuss with afterwards. Another opinion can really help open my eyes to things sometimes and either make me love or hate something more. This can be helpful when I'm on the fence about something. In certain instances I did have people to attend with but for the most part I was alone.

Flash Summary

Favorite event: The Chicago Lyric Opera (A+, would recommend to anyone)

Least Favorite Event: Brown Bag Lecture with Kisha Jones (D, avoid unless you like being cramped in a small room with smelly food and mean people)

Overall Opinion of Course: 
All in all I really did like this class. It was an interesting take on exploring the University and I would recommend it to my friends, including those not in A&D. If I were the course supervisor I'd change it so only one or two lectures from your major were allowed, maybe with a more extensive analysis required of those. I think this course has a lot of potential to be very beneficial to students at this University, as long as they're willing to take risks and put the work in to find new things that interest them.

That's all from me. It's been good. Have a great summer!!