Spring 2011

It's January 1st, 2011. I'm ready to go back to school! Who's with me?

I have less than two weeks to wait now. Spring 2011 at MTSU will begin soon. It's hard to believe that I have one more semester left before I graduate. But that's for another post. Once again, I'm looking forward to my classes for this semester, my last as an undergraduate.

Here's the full list of my classes.

Concert Chorale - As I have been every semester, I will once again be in Concert Chorale. I've been happy I've been able to work it into my schedule this whole time. It wouldn't be school without it.

Introduction to Music - Yes, I know I'm a senior - almost like a fifth-year senior - and freshman/sophmores are supposed to take Intro to Music. I blame switching my major and not deciding that I wanted to take Intro to Music as an elective for my minor until I had figured out all of my major classes first and not deciding to take any minor classes until I was well underway with my major classes. So it got pushed to the last semester. At least I'm hoping it's easy and I'll have another guaranteed A aside from choir in my last semester.

And wait...it gets better....

Theater Appreciation - Yep. Another freshman class. In evaluating what I had left this year, I realized that I needed one more gen ed. I thought about taking it last semester, but it wasn't really working with my schedule. I knew I could take it my last semester, so that's what I'm going to do. Like Intro to Music, I'm hoping this is rather simple, so I'll have at least two classes that I don't have to worry about, and another guaranteed A. A great GPA would be wonderful to see in my last semester.

19th Century American Literature - A "real" class. I'm looking forward to this one. I've always loved this period of history, and I tend to gravitate to literature written during this time. So even though I have to buy another couple of anthologies to add to my expanding collection, I'm excited!

English Literature: Restoration to 18th Century - I have to buy yet another anthology, but this time one specifically of poetry. Aside from poetry, it looks like we're going to be reading things that I've wanted to read for a while, specifically "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Beggar's Opera." Along with a couple of other things that look to be delightful as well. I also like this period in history. In general, I'm pretty much a fan of anything pre-20th Century. I don't hate the 20th Century, but I suppose that since I was born in it, albeit rather late in it, most things coming out of that time just aren't old enough. I'm a fan of old things.

Milton - John Milton that is. Be still my heart. To fill this certain requirement for my major, I was hoping to take a class on Chaucer. Oh how I love Chaucer. But they weren't offering it this semester when I went to register, so I started looking for what else I could take. I thought I was going to have to take Shakespeare. There's nothing wrong with Shakespeare, but everybody takes Shakespeare and part of me was hoping to avoid it. My anti-conformist instincts, I guess. Education majors HAVE to take Shakespeare, and since I'm not going into education, I determined I wasn't going to take Shakespeare, simply because I didn't have to. So I was elated when I saw that I could take a class on Milton and they were indeed offering it this semester. I'm looking forward to this one most. This is the first time I'm going to have a repeat professor in the English department. He's a super smart Milton expert. Like, for real. He's written a book on Milton, and naturally it's a part of our curriculum this semester. I really like him. I had him for Brit Lit 1 a couple of years ago, and in that class we read a bit of Milton, which was where I got a taste for him. And since I know this professor knows his stuff, and is going to be really invested in teaching this class, I couldn't resist taking it. I assume we're going to read Paradise Lost, and that suits me. I've been wanting to read it for a while, and now I have an excuse! Oh, and for all you Shakespeare lovers, I'm not hating on Shakespeare. I will read more of his great works at a later date. I'm eager to read more of his great works. I just really didn't want to take a class devoted to him and only him. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it, but that's beside the point.


I'm almost chomping at the bit to get started on all of this wondrous material. This semester promises to be a good one. Half of my schedule is fascinating, challenging, upper division work, and the other half will be spent with a bunch of freshman learning a lot of things I already know (particularly in Intro to Music). It should be interesting, as I have found most things in my life to be.