I Ocassionally Learn Stuff.

In real life, I tend to not be dramatic. I’m usually the friend who’s giving logic to the dramatic. One friend famously asked me “Why are you so logical when I’m so dramatic?”. I have a good number of friends who are very dramatic and yes, sometimes it does rub off on me. Usually it shows up on this blog. I wasn’t the child that came home with a lot of friend problems in high school and even now. But if you ask my parents, I was the quietest child around people but the loudest child when you got me home.

Now why do I tell you this?

Because I’ve been looking at some of my posts and see how uncharacteristically dramatic I am in some of them.

I have water in my bedroom. It’s been raining a LOT in the past 2 weeks or so, which was a good thing. We were really dry but we’ve gotten close to 10 inches of rain in the past couple weeks. MAKE IT STOP! We need to get the rest of crop in and I live in a basement apartment and I don’t want to canoe my way through my apartment.

Now to some literature. Or me learning about literature.

I had a professor in college that kind of looks like a bag lady. No one was a big fan of her. I had to have her for 2 classes. Brit Lit 1 and Comp 3. She told me she thought I had a learning disability. I’m pretty sure that learning disability was her. All my friends dreaded taking her classes. Anyway she made me read some literature that I wasn’t fond of. Piers Plowman by William Langland and Doctor Faustas by Christopher Marlow. Now both were written before my desired period, early to mid-nineteenth century women British writers.

Now I had 2 other professors. One I had American Lit 1 with. He had awesome ties. There were 4 or 5 of us girls that sat in the back by the door (I had Brit Lit 2 right after this) and we’d talk about his ties and take bets on which ones he would wear. He’d also use my last name when he called on me in class. The other one I had Lit Crit. (hardest English class I have ever taken), Victorian Lit (I loved that class) and she was my senior project advisor. I loved these professors.

My question: if one of the professors I liked had taught Plowman or Faustas, would I like them more? Would I like them more now if I read them by myself? A teacher can do a lot to influence someone’s interest by how they teach.

My freshman year I took Western Civ. I and II. I again sat in the back near the door because I needed to jet after class across campus to another class. (do you see a habit of me sitting in the back. I will always sit in the back. Why? I don’t know.) Mind you, this was before I declared History as my minor. It was taught by an older teacher. He came in the class every day humming (he’s part of a singing group in the BisMan area) and he has this kind of funny walk and he had a sense of humor not everyone gets. But I loved it. I got so much out of those classes, inspiring me to get a minor in history. I used to work in a little tourist trap and his singing group would come in the summer and he recognized me even 3 years after his class and he goes “still working here huh?” “yup, I’m a lifer” “Yeah that’s okay too.” I once got a higher grade on a paper in his class than my band friend Seth and he read his book and I didn’t and Seth was so mad about me getting a higher grade.

I often wonder what would have happened if I didn’t have the teachers that influenced me one way or the other. What would I have done if I didn’t get a degree in English? Would I have finished my bachelors? Would I have gotten a degree in music, which was my second choice? Or education? Heaven forbid if it were education. I wouldn’t last long teaching high school or elementary. But I totally respect teachers.

Funny story. Pastor asked in church on Sunday how long the dotted yellow lines were in the middle of the road and I answered 10 feet and I was right because I learned that in Drivers Ed. Boom.