What I learned this fall semester
By Zach Jewett
It all began with time. Or rather, the passage of time. I believe
that a myth is created through time. Yesterday was news, ten years ago was the
past, 100 years, history, and 1000 years, legend, and eventually it becomes
myth. That is, if it doesn’t fall off the radar.
And this is how I started my first draft of my final
presentation. But as I was sitting there, head butting my way through writer’s
block and I was like “Man, this is terrible.” Even worse than being terribly
written, it was boring. Of course, “If it is boring, then you have not
developed the capacity to be interesting”. In the middle of face-rolling my way
across the keyboard, I was shocked to devise a better plan. I can stand here
and tell you exactly the things I thought, the things I said, the things I saw,
and the things I did. What better way to show you.
I had heard before that any story ever written had already
been done by the Greeks. I questioned, how? How does it account for things that
did not exist; cars, planes, guns, most technological advancement. It doesn’t
have to. This class opened my eyes to how prevalent myth is in everyday life.
How myth is the precedent behind every action. It’s the foundations of the
stories, the lessons learned that write the stories. The settings and characters
change but never do the underlying themes. Something you all proved with the
displaced myths.
One of the largest lessons I took from this class was public
speaking. Not necessarily just the presentations but the blog as well. Like
Jean, this was my maiden voyage into the blogging world. I was concerned about
having all my thoughts and experiences out there for people to read and pass
judgment on it. In fact, I didn’t even grow the guts to email to Scott until
last week. But once it was on there, I
felt more a sense of pride, not only for posting it, but knowing that I went
outside my comfort zone. Shortly following this revelation, I realized we were
all going through this obligation and suffering. A continuous cycle of the
three stages of myth: separation, imitation, transformation. Life can be broken
down into certain cycles, childhood, teenage, adult, etc. However, there are
cycles within those cycles. Each semester in college can be a cycle, or college
as a whole as a Rite of Passage. Going, and coming back.
I also learned some friendship lessons. I want to thank
Sebastian. Sebastian and I go back a couple years, and he has a massive help to
me this semester. He helped me keep myself organized and pushed me to get back
to class. He proved himself to be an awesome friend that I respect. You are the
Theseus to my Pirithous. And look at those luscious locks! Ladies, seriously!
I’ll see you in the underworld buddy.
Ian. I’m not sure I spoke a word to you all semester thank you
for keeping me in the game. You were my friend from across the internet. Your
and Elises’ notes saved my bacon multiple times. I realized you were in my math
class, last Thursday. He can vouch that I skipped a presentation in that class
as well.
I remember that everything is, well, remembered. Yet, I find
one exception: the people. How do we remember people we have never met? It was
fun learning who you all were. Kelly, I can see your birthday haunting me in
the future. July 25th? Something important happens today. I also
have a soft spot for Mankato now. In one of the games I play, I can conquer the
territory, I choose not to enslave the populace. From everyone else, I gained
another valuable lesson. I forgot what it was like to be a class like this. One
in which no one had to be here. We all took LIT285 because we had an interest
in mythologies.
Now it’s time I added a little brown-nosing. Sexson, I’m so
jealous ofyour grandchildren, you’d be the coolest grandpa. I think a lot of
can agree. They say it takes 10,000 work hours to be considered a master. I
think you’ve accomplishped that tenfold and are a Grand Master Educator,
definitely Zeus to the class. Not only did you teach us the stories of the
Olympians but you taught us vocabulary, etimologies, art history, books worth
reading, even laws of thermodynamics, and you did it in an entertaining
fashion. It’s hard for me to sit down and listen to a man talk for 75 minutes.
Yet, you’re like listening to a book. You sir, are a scholar and
storyteller. And stories are what it was all about. So that is what I truly learned
from this class: a good story.
