Why I Love Being a University Student

Today was my second day of my new classes this semester and I am pumped for what the next four months have in store. I have a feeling this is going to be my most intense semester ever and a large part of that is because I finally decided to man up a little. I’m taking three English courses, two of which are 3000 level, a Neuroscience course and a Psychology course. I’m not too worried about my science courses, but the English ones should be interesting.

For Children’s Literature I get to read:

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Treasure Island –Robert Louis Stevenson

Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

As well as a massive survey of fairy tales and other children’s stories

Should be easy enough as well as quite entertaining. My prof is anti technology and won’t allow computers in the classroom, which is a major bummer for me, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m interested to see how the Harry Potter section will turn out…

For Contemporary Literature I get to read:

Libra – Don DeLillo

Vas: An Opera in Flatland – Steve Tomasula

Maus – Art Speigleman

House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski

Schrodinger’s Cat – Ursula K. Le Guin

As well as a whole bunch of postmodern short stories

I think I’m going to be in heaven in this class. It’s with the same prof who chose a Jonathan Safran Foer book for us to read last semester, so I trust her reading choices already. That and I’ve heard that a lot of the things we are studying have wicked typography and pages where the font runs all over the page. Seeing as my one request for Christmas was JSF’s Tree of Codes, I think I’m going to fit right in.

For Modern Novel I get to read:

The Sound and The Fury – William Faulkner

Hunger – Knut Hamsun

Three Lives – Gertrude Stein

Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

Ulysses – James Joyce

I have never been more intimidated by a course than I am by this one. Reason #1: We are given two weeks to read Ulysses. For those of you who haven’t seen Ulysses, it is massive and certainly not a two week read for a slow reader like me, especially when we have to read a guide every chapter along with it just to understand it. I’m overly terrified slash wonderfully excited to tackle a book that has been referenced by every single English prof I’ve ever had. Reason #2: My prof has a vanity plate that says “ULYSSES” above his office door. If that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is. Reason #3: My prof is the Associate Dean for Arts and Science. This is the guy whose job it is to expel students for cheating or plagiarism. No pressure. Reason #4: He said in-class essays that take more than an hour are ridiculous. I don’t write essays in an hour. Reason #5: He wants our final 18-page paper due back in increments. For those of you who have ever witnessed me writing a paper or know about my writing techniques, I also don’t do increments.

This class has me scared out of my mind (my heart was racing through the reading of the syllabus) but I’m excited. It’s important to note that one of the reasons I’m sticking with it is because reading Ulysses is on my life list. I’m excited to be challenged and, while he is intimidating, the prof seems quite funny and I have a feeling I’m going to learn a lot. Also, he has old Windsor eyeglasses, so that’s pretty legit too.

Between my own personal entertainment readings (I just took an optimistic 20 books out from the library. What are the chances I'm going to touch more than 3 of them?), Kerry’s Canadian-book-a-month, and whatever neuro and psych textbooks I have to read, I basically don’t intend to do anything else but read in my free time. This is why I love university.