Fall 2010

I get to go to school tomorrow!

I've been plastering that phrase all over the Internet and thought it was worth repeating here.

Can you tell I'm excited? I'm afraid my exclamation point might be a little too subtle. Please know that I am burgeoning with glee.

Not only am I excited because I'm a nerd who gets a thrill at the idea of buying textbooks, but I'm also particularly pleased (thus far) with the classes I'm set to be taking. Here's a rundown of my 16 hours this fall:

Concert Chorale - Not much to be said here. The choir I've been in every semester of my college career. But I enjoy it oh so much, and I'm delighted to participate yet again. It wouldn't feel like a normal semester at MTSU without it.

History of Popular Music in America - I was just looking at the schedule for this class and, if I was paying attention closely enough and not entirely absorbed in what I was reading, I'm pretty sure I was smiling the whole time. There's a list of songs I have to listen to before almost every class of varying styles throughout the semester. Force me to listen to music? What torture!

Introduction to Linguistics - The catalog entry for this class reads, "Anatomy of sound production, levels of structure in language: phonological (sound), morphological (meaningful segments), syntactic (interrelation of words in a sentence). Various meanings of language." Fascinating. No, really, I do think that's fascinating.

The Bible as Literature - I'm not entirely sure what to expect out of this one. But I'm intrigued. I can see how harm could potentially come from it; the point is to study it as words put together to communicate a point like all other literature in the world, not as the living, breathing Word of God unlike all other literature in the world. But I think I'm sufficiently grounded in the truth of what I know the Bible to be, so even if it's stripped down to just pretty words, or a repository of historical information, I know that those pretty words and historical records have much more substance, and hopefully my understanding of that substance will be enhanced.

Themes in Literature and Culture: Tolkien and Rowling - That's right, a class in which I have to read The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. I just reread Harry's adventure over the summer, and I'm already chomping at the bit to do it again. And it's been ages since I've dived into Middle Earth, so a visit is overdue. My biggest concern is the volume of the material. Just for this one class, that's roughly the equivalent of 10 novels and what I am estimating to be at least 3,000 pages. Don't quote me on that, though. I'll have to count and see. But I'm a fast reader, right? And yes, I've heard Dr. Sherman is hard, but right now I'm so enchanted by the subject matter that not even hard-to-please professors are intimidating. Not much.

Theory and Aural Skills IV - Music theory, that is. My fourth and last semester. Music theory has never been my strongest point, but I've loved every minute of it and I'm giddy at the fact that I've managed to get this far when every semester I have feared failure. Seems my fears were unfounded and I pray that's the case one last time.

As you can see, every class pertains to either my major or minor field of study. That's a first. It's nice to have general education be a thing of the past. Guess what else? I don't have class on Friday! Another first.

I feel like my schedule is charmed this semester. I pray it still manages to retain even the tiniest smidge of its appeal by the time December rolls around.

It all begins in approximately nine hours! Here's to more adventures in hard work and learning!