Once upon a time there was a woman who decided to go back to college. She pondered as to what at this late point in her life, she could possibly get out of it and use in her remaining years of life. After deciding that Spanish, as a second language was definitely beneficial she started and completed the class with an A, 4.0. Now she had to decide what else besides continuing the Spanish, she should do. At the suggestion of a close friend who pursued his PhD and teaches at the college, she chose to start with English 106 as a required class to get it out of the way before continuing lengthier evaluation on the rest of the courses she should take. With no idea what this class would entail she showed up on the first evening, with a lot of trepidation and feelings of insufficiency. After the class she was most definitely unsure of whether she had made the right choice to pursue this college degree, as she was surrounded by youth and a brilliant professor, which caused her to think she was really out of her depth of understanding. She bought the required books and started reading the assignment of “Lucy”. Here was something she could understand, the love of reading a good book. Could this class possibly be within her reach? Well, of course that was definitely the wrong thing to think after interacting in a few more classes and realizing that she had way to many years of life to ever think as young, unfettered and inexperienced as her classmates, even the professor, just starting his career. She would continue and see this through as best she could; still not knowing what all was in store. The class started watching documentaries and was given a list of required films to get and watch in their own time. The first documentary seen in class triggered the interest of this woman as to what and why it was made. The fact that it was of value and people judged and categorized this film made her look at it more closely and evaluate it herself. Then surprisingly, she went and got a library card and decided to read the rest of the books that the author of “Lucy” had written. She also got many books aobut the author Kincaid and read them and looked at interviews to see this woman up close. She also got several of the required documentaries and started watching them. Taking just a measly seven credits she found herself studying almost all of her free time and delving into all this literary knowledge with excitement and promise. She wrote her first blog, without even knowing what a blog was and unleashed a greater power, which will be loose on the world until the end of her days. She attended the writing lab, to help with essays and learned the proper style of writing which she is hoping will be considered her own good writing, yet with many things to still ponder and learn. She browsed the internet and studied different critic styles and evaluations of films and poetry and writings.
Alas, this English course is almost over and she will have to move on to different interests for awhile, reluctant to wake up from the mental maze she has submersed herself in for the last weeks. However it ends, hopefully with another A, she has taken from this experience much more than she ever thought when she first entered the class. Working very hard behind the scenes to deserve this A she takes an experience from every person she interacted with, and all the knowledge the witty professor imparted in his many different ways that will stay with her the rest of her life. Most of the young people will move on and gradually forget English 106 as they take many more credit hours and immerse themselves in their futures. This mature lady takes and values her experiences very seriously and ponders all the knowledge she will continue to gain at as a result of the triggering of literary interests gained from English 106. Thank you all.