What I Learned This Fall Semester

So, I came up with a lot of my final presentation while I was speaking, but this is the paper I was reading off of.

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 25^th? 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.