Happy Thursday, friends!
Wow, what a hectic week! Between visitors in town all of last weekend and then more visitors this week/weekend, I've been busier than a one-armed paper hanger - but busy with people I rarely get to see, so it's definitely a good thing. :)
Anyways, I feel sad to shortchange this week's Thankful Thursday, but sleeeeeeep is caaaaaaaaalling...
So, to be quick, today I just want to express gratitude for my education. What an immense blessing college was in my life! Not only did I meet so many wonderful friends, but I learned how to learn, and I was taught so many amazing thoughts and ideas that shaped the way I see the world by brilliant and caring professors. BYU was amazing - I still somehow find myself mentally strolling through campus on a regular basis, or I relay to a friend something I learned in some class. I loooooved my college experience, and I am forever grateful - and indebted to my amazing Grandma Doris, who made my education possible. I can't imagine my life without having spent those 4 1/2 years at BYU!
You know that saying about how when you cheat, you only cheat yourself? Well, I didn't cheat in college, but I did have a knack for skipping out on much of my required reading but still managing to do well in class. In the end, though, I kick myself for not really lapping up every particle of knowledge I could have when I had the time. I've held on to all of those books that I swore I'd read someday; if you've ever seen my room, you can attest that it looks like a library, with shelves lining the walls wherever there's space.
Well, I finally brought Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America out of retirement and have been reading it every day on my lunch break. At the rate I'm going, it'll take a year! I wish I'd just buckled down and done it for my American Studies 303 class like I was supposed to.
Anyways, the book is fascinating! I'll do a whole post on it later, but I am loving it, and I realize that I would never have been introduced to Tocqueville, were it not for college - as is the case with so many concepts that I recall daily to process what I see in the world around me.
BYU's whole motto is to "Enter to Learn - Go Forth to Serve," and there's also an emphasis on lifelong learning. I hope that I am living up to those values of my beloved alma mater. There is so much service to render and so much knowledge to acquire - if only we had more hours in the day!
What are you thankful for this Thursday?
7 comments:
Christa,
Although I remain in awe of your American Studitude, I'm so very relieved that I'm not the only one who didn't get through our good friend Alexis's tome :D .
And here's my confession: I slacked on reading for Fox's classes. I stayed up until 4 trying to catch up before the final (b/c the SF final was at 7 PM Friday and the PC final was 7 AM Saturday).
It wasn't until my second or third York class that I discovered the secret to acing his exams--but it worked without fail!
Sigh. I'm only 10 minutes away and I miss the Y. I hate going there because I feel like I'm missing out. Of course, apparently I didn't do that great of a job on actually experiencing it at the time, either.
Jordan, I know what you mean about feeling like an outsider at the Y now! When I was up there for Fox's dinner, I couldn't bear to wander campus because I knew it would just make me sad. I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one who misses it so much!
How funny - Fox's classes were the only ones where I actually did all the reading. On the flipside, I did maybe 20 percent of the reading for York! I somehow caught on enough to be really vocal and seem like I'd read... but I never did the reading. And now I feel really, really bad about that, 'cause I know I missed out. Glad to know I wasn't the only sneaky non-reader, though!
PS: I still, to this day, have no idea how you survived taking SF and Pop Culture in the same semester!!! I would have DIED. Fox's classes were my favs, but they were definitely the toughest AmSt classes I took. You're brave!
I would like to take this moment to say that I suffered through all 828 pages of Democracy in America during AMST 303. It wasn't until after I took the final that I realized that I was probably the only person in the entire class that read the whole thing. How young and innocent and naive I was then. I didn't really learn to skim successfully until grad school and it is now a much mastered skill. Still, I'm glad I slugged my way through de Tocqueville even though I didn't really understand a lot of what I read. I often get this idealistic amibition to go back and re-read the whole thing but that may be a long time coming.
Still, de Tocquerville was a very astute observer of America and many of his perceptions still ring true. My absolute favorite quote from the book is on page 173 of Book 2: "An American leaves his country with a heart swollen with pride; on arriving in Europe he at once finds out that we are not so engrossed by the United States and the great people who inhabit it as he had supposed, and this begins to annoy him." It's so true!
(Sidenote: Did we take 303 the same semester? I can't remember now though I seem to think we did. I know we took the Disney class and Pop Culture together. I took 303 in the fall semester of my sophomore year so that would have been in 2002.)
Anyway, good luck in reading the rest of the book. I look forward to reading your thoughts on it. Who knows, maybe it'll inspire me to read a few chapters here and there too.
I'm just like you, Christa, in that I LOVED my BYU experience, so seeing this picture is something I'm grateful for--especially since the Tanner is one of the features! I loved that building (I mean, c'mon, there's a "cafe" as part of it--that's all I need!), even if it did house my Accounting 210 memories which will haunt me until the day I die. But the Tanner building, and BYU, holds so many fantastic memories for me, so I'm grateful you posted this picture! Thank you!
Liz, how funny - we totally did take 303 together, then! It was fall of my junior year, and I'm a high school class ahead of you, so that's just right. I wonder if York had two sections? It was before I knew you through ASSA - but I remember that Carolyn and Ashleigh were in the class, too.
Ah, York. Such a winner. I'm trying to find my notes on his classic Thanksgiving lecture so I can blog it for next week... :)
And, um, how much do I love that I can geek out about American Studies with you lovely ladies via the blog! I miss discussing this stuff!!!
Then we were in the same 303 class. I sat in the back, and never spoke up. :-) I don't think I took notes on the Thanksgiving lecture, but I do remember the Pilgrim Barbie (or was it Indian Barbie?) that you bought for York.
I liked York outside of class, and I enjoyed 303, but I took his Revolutionary War class my last semester at BYU and hated it. It was the only major class I took that I did not get an A in. I may still be a little bitter about it. But perhaps that's because I never learned how to pass his tests. I am, however, very proud of my two solid As in Fox's classes because I learned early on how to study and pass his meticulous exams.
I miss BYU and school in general a lot some days. I love chatting about American Studies stuff.
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