Monday, May 01, 2006
|A Good End.|
I walked to class today listening to Sufjan Stevens', "Chicago." I, in fact, was listening to Sufjan Stevens all morning.
As I arrived to class, my last class at Columbia for (probably) ever (incidentally at Barnard), I turned off my iPod and tucked it into my yellow MTA messenger bag.
My professor handed out class evaluations, turned on some music, and stepped out of the room. And I was once again engulfed in Sufjan Stevens. This time, "Come on! Feel the Illinoise." More than a few kids knew the words, and more than a few kids, myself included, quietly sung them out loud.
This has been the oddest semester. All of my classes, though mostly very distinct, overlapped in theory if not also in theorists. My political sociology class began the term with discussions of power. I wrote about those theories in a paper for my masculinity course (the course that caps the end of my time here), and the professor then talked about those same theories today, wrapping up the course. My seminar on the stranger in society found its way to the critical gender theorists I read about in my masculinity course as well as to the notions of social interaction and social contagion lectured on in my course on networks. In political sociology we discussed ethnicity and otherness, especially in terms of colonialization, colonialization and ethnicity being a whole session in my stranger seminar. And the multiple connections that all of my classes made with one another, is umbrella'ed by my networks course, connections and links being the grit of the subject matter.
I think that when the connections start to reveal themselves -- start to become all a student can see, then his liberal arts education was good and complete.
I started today, my last day of classes, with Sufjan Stevens and I ended my final class with Sufjan Stevens. I started this semester with four courses that I thought were very distinct, and ended with a cooperative. I started Columbia positive and hopeful, sure of myself and my future. Along the way I veered and detoured, but I feel I am ending Columbia postive and hopeful, sure of myself and my future.
It's a good end.
I walked to class today listening to Sufjan Stevens', "Chicago." I, in fact, was listening to Sufjan Stevens all morning.
As I arrived to class, my last class at Columbia for (probably) ever (incidentally at Barnard), I turned off my iPod and tucked it into my yellow MTA messenger bag.
My professor handed out class evaluations, turned on some music, and stepped out of the room. And I was once again engulfed in Sufjan Stevens. This time, "Come on! Feel the Illinoise." More than a few kids knew the words, and more than a few kids, myself included, quietly sung them out loud.
This has been the oddest semester. All of my classes, though mostly very distinct, overlapped in theory if not also in theorists. My political sociology class began the term with discussions of power. I wrote about those theories in a paper for my masculinity course (the course that caps the end of my time here), and the professor then talked about those same theories today, wrapping up the course. My seminar on the stranger in society found its way to the critical gender theorists I read about in my masculinity course as well as to the notions of social interaction and social contagion lectured on in my course on networks. In political sociology we discussed ethnicity and otherness, especially in terms of colonialization, colonialization and ethnicity being a whole session in my stranger seminar. And the multiple connections that all of my classes made with one another, is umbrella'ed by my networks course, connections and links being the grit of the subject matter.
I think that when the connections start to reveal themselves -- start to become all a student can see, then his liberal arts education was good and complete.
I started today, my last day of classes, with Sufjan Stevens and I ended my final class with Sufjan Stevens. I started this semester with four courses that I thought were very distinct, and ended with a cooperative. I started Columbia positive and hopeful, sure of myself and my future. Along the way I veered and detoured, but I feel I am ending Columbia postive and hopeful, sure of myself and my future.
It's a good end.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 11:54.
2 comments
2 Comments:
MTA yellow messenger bag. You know where I can find one?? benn looking for one.
By 
, at
4:21 AM
Duh, sorry for the stupid comment and without leaving my info... It's d-guardian at hot mail dot com. thanks.
By , at
4:22 AM
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