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I can't remember jack!
So, I was doing some final FINAL proofing on Lazarus when I read a line that stood out to me:
"French, Black Women Writers, Computer Science, Ethics, and ah...something else, man, I can't remember," Isaiah said.
Now clearly, I had been influenced by my own classes I took in undergrad. I re-remembered that I had taken Introduction to Ethics....but I can't remember SHIT about that class!
For every class I've taken, and others I have dropped, I remember at least ONE significant thing about them....but not ethics!
Intro to Psychology: James. That's all, just James.
French: I remember each professor vividly, even down to the research interests of my last prof.
Intro to Philosophy: The Evil Genius theory. (The Matrix came out a few months later.)
Intro to Anthropology: My teacher was this teeny tiny lady, who happened to be married to my College Advisor. Her field work was related to Guatemalan sex workers. I could be making up the part about Guatemala, but I am sure it was a Spanish speaking country. Anyway, I most vividly remember all the field work I did for that class as well as World Ethnography.
Psychology, Photography, and the Visual Arts: A sucky class that I thought would be fun. The most hilarious moment of the class (though nobody laughed but me) was when we were sharing slides and the cheerleader had taken a picture of the lights in the MCI Center, taken from the floor. I thought it was a horrible picture, personally, and the prof had already figuratively torn my picture to pieces, calling it a "snapshot." Well this chick says "Well, I'm a cheerleader, so I spend a lot of time on my knees...."
I looked around and couldn't believe that no one else was even smiling.
Then there are classes I remember a LOT about, to the point where they profoundly influenced me: Black Women Writers, Problem of God, Religions of the African Diaspora, Ancient Religions of the Near East, Islamic Religious Thought and Practice, Modern Islam, Comparative Mythology, Music and Ethnicity (or something of that nature), and Black History/Black Culture.
But it's sort of scary to me that I took classes that clearly had no value to me. I just HAD to take them. Like Intro to Ethics. What the hell was the point?
Now, sitting here this long thinking about it, I finally recall that it was in this class that I learned about Universalism and Cultural Relativism. But come on...ONE thing out of a 15 week class? That's a waste of somebody's money.
Looking back, I know that Ethics fulfilled some kind of Philosophy requirement. I think I could take Intro to Philosophy and one higher level philosophy, or I could substitute the higher level Philosophy with Ethics. Seems like I hated philosophy so much that Ethics HAD to be better.
You kind of forget that you're in college to learn....
One more quick story:
So when I came to Georgetown, I just KNEW I was going to be a history major. Well, Professor Astarita quickly ended those dreams when he FAILED me on my first college mid-term. I was like WTF??? And then I realized I liked writing a whole lot better than reading (history) thanks to Professor Keith Fort and his co-teacher Stephanie Vermeychuk (love her!). I decided then and there that I would be an English major and write books.
The rest is history.
Posted by Rashid on February 27, 2005 6:52 PM