In my final blog entry I am just going to reflect on my years at Saint Mary's College and what the future holds.

Four years has flown by and I can't believe it is all coming to an end. It seems like just yesterday my parents left me here, crying. But every year after that I was basically kicking them out so I could go catch up with my friends. Freshman year was by far the most difficult year for me. It was just a lot of adjustments all at the same time. At one point I was even planning on transferring to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Not transferring was the best decision I have ever made for myself. I wouldn't be the same person had I transferred. I would have missed out on so many of the great friends I made in my remaining years. Not to mention I wouldn't have met my boyfriend.

Sophmore year was hard work. Junior year was a big party. Senior year was stressful. I honestly feel like college has been a blur. Sometimes I can't remember what year something happened in. But all in all I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Saint Mary's has made me a more well rounded individual and I feel as though I can go out into the world and make an impact. What an empowering place.

As for the future. My boyfriend and I bought a house in the greater Cincinnati area in the subburbs. I do not currently have a job but I plan to be in the school system as soon as they figure out what teachers are coming back next year. I can't wait for this chapter of my life to start with the love of my life. But at the same time I am sad that I am leaving all my friends and we will probably never be all together again. I guess I just have to enjoy the rest of these two weeks.

Dislocated

I went to view Katie Wojan's art work titled Dislocated. Her display was one of the only one's put together in the gallery so her work was really the center of attention. I found her collection extremely interesting. It appeared to me to be a conglomeration and blending of treasure maps, topographical maps, and the traditional geographic maps. What was most interesting about the form of the land was that it wasn't just the typical map, she moved and probably even created her own land masses. But what made this collection stand out was the fact that Wojan incorporated her words into each piece. The words where her personal experiences from adventures she had while traveling. So in a sense her creation was like a treasure map because through the course of her travels and through her work at Saint Mary's she has in part found herself.

Pretty Pretty

We asked the question in-class what is pretty? Pretty can be many things defined differently by different people. The dictionary has its definition. But I would say the media has the greatest influence on what we are supposed to think pretty is. And the media has this unattainable definition that most girls cannot reach. When I Googled pretty these were the 1st images that popped up: 1 and 2 . This just shows how people have different ideas of what pretty are. I think that everyone is pretty in their own ways. And it doesn't always have to be physical either. Someone can be pretty on the outside but ugly on the inside. Our goal should be to be pretty in all aspects according to our own definition of what pretty is.

Interpreter of Maladies

Twinkle finds many treasures after her and Sanjeev move into their new house. She finds a variety of things such as a wooden cross key chain, 10 commandments dishtowel, bible scenes plates, Virgin statue in the yard, postcard of St. Francis, paint by number of the 3 wise men, snow globe nativity, poster with the tears, tile with blond Jesus, and the silver bust among other things. Sanjeev wants her to get rid of these items because they mean nothing to their Hinduism. Twinkle thinks that they are interesting and feels that it would be sacreligious to throw them away. I am not really sure who I agree with. I think that if I found a bunch of items from previous owners that were religious I would feel kind of bad throwing them away but they wouldn't mean anything to me. And if these items didn't deserve to be thrown away and were important then why were they left behind in the first place?

Cast of O

I just wanted to reflect on the cast of O. I thought that they did a good job casting these people as the characters of Othello. It was helpful to put a face with a character. I found myself assimilating the cast of O into Othello. The cast of Othello translated into O pretty well I thought. Othello was Oden. Desdemona was Dessi. Iago was Hugo. Cassio was Michael (the only name that doesn't really sound similiar). Amelia was Emily. Rodrigo was Roger. Although the cast was able to be transformed into present day I still do not feel the concept of the play and now movie is universal. It was just too much for a high school setting. Regardless if it was a private boarding school or not.

O

O has proven to be a very interesting movie for me. I enjoy making the connections from the characters in Othello to the characters in the film. Hugo is a master manipulator and is getting everything to go just the way he wanted to, if not better. But as a viewer it is difficult to watch him do this to everyone around him solely for the attention of his father. When Hugo goes to eat dinner with his dad in his office, we don't see his dad at all until he gets up to leave. We only hear his voice as he talks to Hugo about Odin, really showing the distance that is between them.

I also think it is interesting how the theme of racism is playing out in this film. Although the black hawk is supposed to be representative of the dark spirited Hugo, I can't help but make the connection of there being one black hawk and one black Odin. He is the only black basketball player and only black student at the school as far as we know. And there is only one balck hawk among countless white doves. I also thought it was particularly interesting when Desi and Emily are discussing Desi and Hugo's weekend trip. Desi is raped by Odin and still finds ways to try and justify it. Emily doesn't react the way Desi wants her to and asks Emily if she would be reacting the same if Odin was white.

This film shows how dangerous love can be, it also concentrates on racism and exploits the human emotions of jealousy on multiple levels.

Othello

After viewing Othello as it was interpreted for a play and as it was interpreted for a film, I think I much prefer it on film. I realize that both are interpretations of what Shakespeare wrote and both do Shakespeare justice. However, I feel that the film version does a better job of telling the story. Film has an advantage over a stage performance because on film they can play with camera angles, lighting, and special effects if they so chose. Film just has so many more opportunities to capture the audience's attention allowing the viewer to connect with the actors on a level that you wouldn't with a stage performane. I think I also prefer film over a stage performance because I know I will always be able to hear and see the actor's face that is speaking and you don't always get that from the stage.