january retrospect

The sirens that have been wailing all night and into the day, the 92 mph (maybe kilometers, but real fast) winds, and a bit of a cold make today a fine day to stay indoors. its half past three and already the sun has begun its descent; unless of course i'm mistaken and the darkened dismal color of the sky is only an effect of intense cloud cover and strong bellowing gales. my Exams are finished. I now have until monday to contemplate my own thoughts, a majorty of which, by now are all tied up and tangled with thoughts from lectures so the two are at times indistinguishable. For better or for worse. my first semester in England has officially come to an end, christmas and new years passed. january is nearly over already. students that were only here for the semester look forward to home and are sad to leave. others look forward to a new semester, and I, to warmer weather as well.

In the midst of studying for my epistemology exam, justfied true beliefs, gettier paradoxes, contextualism and more of the same, i began to enjoy myself and even took a moment to write a short essay I have entitled, 'Why I Like School'. Its silly and deceptive and very honest and exagerated and entirely true.

Why I Like School...

My experience as a student has shown me that as the semester progresses so does the confusion. Books pile higher in haphazard pyramids, no longer time, or just a lack of desire, to put them neatly lined up back on the shelf. Papers become crumpled between books and margins are scribbled full of thoughts on lectures and mostly thoughts far from lectures. All semester you read and study and discuss and generally become terribly confused and frustrated. There are those rare moments of inter-semester epiphany and joy, but it gets better than that. The enjoyment truly comes at the end when studying for finals and you look back at the blazed trail of confusion and fashion it all together into comprehensible personal understanding. You look back at W.H. Auden and realize the poet you didnt' enjoy at all during the business of seminar is fantastic. And maybe, when its all said and done you forget some of the facts and theories and key historic figures who made little impact anyway. However, if all goes well, you carry away some new ideas and you've formed a center of understanding from which you can continue onwards. And this is wonderful.

When I discover where we go from there i'll be on to something.