linz
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by linz on Mar 10, 2019 2:41:53 GMT
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shar8
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by shar8 on Mar 11, 2019 13:47:30 GMT
Linz -- I was moved and could relate to your Wilkes first year experience. I think many of us can recall choosing a major and/or classes where we thought we could "thrive & conquer," only to discover that it was all too much. You described so well that feeling of receiving a blue book back from a prof to discover a marking much lower than we expected -- and that sinking feeling... I enjoyed your description of the Sterling and the other activities you took up there that seemed to make life more bearable. I particularly liked your telling of going to the library to study: "I’d wander to the Philip Roth fiction section of the library and admire all of the titles including the two I had read, Portnoy’s Complaint and Good-bye, Columbus. Just seeing these familiar books provided a sense of comfort." Yes, I too, have felt that sense of comfort and would often escape to those areas as well. Thanks for sharing this experience with us.
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Post by moll22 on Mar 11, 2019 21:30:10 GMT
Hi Linz,
I think your comparison of your high school teachers to your Bio. professor in college worked well to show why you might not have had the enthusiasm in college. Your high school teachers were "zany" while your professor picked you out, for not doing things correctly. Your line "I was hoping the shiny classroom floor would open up so I’d fall in" stuck with me. Great visual. As someone who also finds comfort in browsing Farley Library, I'm glad your journey led you to a better college experience!
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Post by lynneheins on Mar 17, 2019 14:46:47 GMT
Sepela,
Talk about feeling vulnerable! College freshman! The description of living at the Sterling Hotel was fascinating.- descriptive and you let us step into your lifestyle. Your placement of backstory on page two of your high school subject interests which lead to your college choices, then moving into college professors and courses, is placed perfectly for balance and pace. Throughout the piece, you have shown us isolation, inadequacy, and peer ridicule. Your word choices bring us there, I would have liked more in the ending that reflects your joy or nat lease being at peace. Those new emotions surely must have brought relief.
Lynne
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Post by saburcat on Mar 28, 2019 17:36:53 GMT
I can't even imagine the feeling as you slowly realize that what you've chosen for your major may not be the best course of action. We see that when you get that first test back, and the hair raising. It's good to see it only took you that one year to see it wasn't for you...lots of people keep moving forward on a path not meant for them, whether because they don't know what else to do, because they're fulfilling someone else's dreams, or because they think that's their dream. I glad to see you only "wasted" that one year, although it obviously wasn't as waste as it helped you see what you really wanted, or at least showed you what you definitely didn't.
The hotel sounds awesome! It would have been so cool to live there. You also bring in those touches of freshman year well--parties, other colleges, living in the dorms. I think if you wanted you could really expand this piece. If you wanted to, I would suggest refining the end to mention what your new college and major are and then work back from there...how you ended up there versus that first year at Wilkes. You could approach it a few different ways--braiding your sophomore year with that first year, or starting with the success of your later college years and then going back to the first year, or do as you've done here and refine and expand on areas. I wanted to know more about the "zany" teacher in high school. The college profs (for the most part) sound like ALL the stuffy old college profs who ever lived, lol, except of course the young guy who introduced you to Walden. You could bring in more about how that book affected you as well.
I too transferred after my freshman year (my major wasn't the issue though). So I could connect with that freshman year feeling as well as the slow realization you might not be where you should be.
Louise
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