Riding on my writing

Hello. Long time no see right? As evinced by my lack of usage over the past almost whole month, you might have hypothesized that my daily schedule has changed a bit. You intelligibly guessed correct, should you carry that disposition; correct to the point where my daily schedule has changed twice since I so frequently frequented you at the dawn of the wee hours of the night and occasional afternoons.

The first change came at the inception of the U.S. Open, which coincidentally was also the first day of school. That would be August 31. Well then, what did I do from Aug 8 to Aug 31? What can I say? – I’ve been busy. My attention has been directed alternately between my classes and the U.S. Open. Every bright and beautiful cauliflower cloud has the possibility of a thunderstorm – and this year hit the jack pot.

I’m the kind of person who likes to keep a timeline of my life and look back at it and see how my decisions have affected my current state. With that said, and still staying on line with the whole going back to school thing, here is a list of all the courses I’ve taken at Stony Brook so far. Keep in mind that for the first two years of college I was a floater – floating around with no major in mind.

1st semester (fall 2007):
MAT 125 (calculus)
WRI 101 (writing)
HDV 101 (an intro to Stony Brook class that’s mandatory)
ATM 103 (weather and climate)
PHI 108 (logical and critical thinking/argumentation)

2nd semester (spring 2008):
MAT 126 (continuation of calculus)
WRI 102 (continuation the first writing class)
HDV 102 (continuation of the first HDV class)
AST 101 (intro to Astronomy)
PHI 105 (intro to political philosophy)
PSY 103 (intro to psychology)

3rd semester (fall 2008):
LIN 101 (linguistics)
CLS 216 (classical mythology)
HUS 224 (Latin America today)
HIS 103 (U.S. history up to the civil – roughly 1860)
PHI 101 (intro to philosophy)

4th semester (spring 2009):
AST 248 (Search for Life in the Universe)
HIS 263 (age of American Revolution)
MUS 119 (elements/fundamentals of music – music theory)
EGL 204 (argumentative and literary analysis)
SPN 211 (intermediate Spanish)

5th semester (fall 2009 – this semester!):
EGL 224 (20th century literature in English - global literature)
EGL 350 (Major writers in US literature from colonial period to 1900)
EGL 380 (the English language – origin and grammar usage)
EGL 243 (major works by Shakespeare)
SPN 212 (continuation of Spanish 211)

Walking in between buildings to get to different classes, I never can stop thinking that most people are probably majoring in some branch of the sciences – since Stony Brook is known to specialize in the sciences. Going down the line: what are you majoring in? – biology, biochemistry, engineering, health science, molecular chemistry . . . English? The number of students majoring in English is unfortunately decreasing at Stony Brook University, or so I’ve heard. In fact just this year, the head of the English department decided to make all English classes available for English major students only. This is explicit with the familiar faces I see in my classes now-a-days. Yes, English majors of the campus unite! And yet as we unite, I still feel lonely.

I feel like I have the lowest level of English out of everybody. To be honest, I only took high school English – regular English, not even IB or Honors English. The only thing going for me is my writing, which I consider decent enough. As for excelling in my English classes in high school and the writing courses I’ve taken in college – my teachers were nice on me, lenient perhaps. I have no outside reading except for amusing short stories and Harry Potter books. But really what I’m doing is riding on my writing. I may not be as in-depth nor analytical as other English major students and I am now even doubting my only car ride – my writing, but I know that when it comes to crunch time, magic happens. Crunch equals test. This is the first semester where I'm actually taking classes leaning towards my major; the other times, I was taking general classes. Can I keep up with them on this lonely high way? Invisible cars never seemed so testy. Time will tell and my mighty mind faces new grounds.