Tag Archives: The Hero’s Journey

An Unexpected Journey to Denny’s

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What’s one way to reduce some of the insanity that comes along with the week before finals? Drop everything you’re doing and go to Denny’s in the middle of the night!

This evening I found myself feeling cabin-feverish and unmotivated to do even more work. So when some of my friends showed up to my suite saying that they wanted to go to Denny’s, I was all on board for it. I needed to get out of my room and enjoy myself a little, and a lot of the rest of us did too. In the 20 minutes before we left, I banged out 3/4 of a page of the paper I’m currently working on so I could sort of justify such an outing.

Since the epic trek to Denny’s was made by foot, my friend Sam (who’s taking a class called The Hero’s Journey with me) and I decided that it would be our own hero’s journey for tonight. After all, we had to cross a highway in order to get there. (Luckily, at one in the morning, there aren’t many cars, which makes crossing relatively safe if you remain alert and aware of your surroundings.) I also joked that he should do his creative project for The Hero’s Journey on our trip to Denny’s.

I think Sam and I must have been on to something, for when we and the other seven members of our group got to Denny’s we were greeted with The Hobbit-themed menus that said “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” on the front. This made my friends happy, since they’re Lord of the Rings fans and watched a couple of the movies last night in preparation for The Hobbit‘s release in theaters next week.

I ordered some pumpkin pancakes that were special to the Hobbit menu as a part of a Grand Slam, which gave me enough food to heat up and enjoy over the next few days when finals hunger gets the best of me. (Finals hunger is very real, and if not controlled appropriately, can be very fattening.)

Like all heroic journeys, my journey to Denny’s had to end with my return to my home “world” of McDaniel. Though my trek took two hours out of my late-night that would have otherwise been spent doing homework (incidentally for The Hero’s Journey), I’m actually feeling a lot more sane than I had been earlier this evening. Thank goodness for good friends and 24-hour restaurants!

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Papers and Projects and Presentations (Oh My!)

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I love college and I love McDaniel college. But one of my least favorite things ever is coming back to campus after Thanksgiving break to wrap up fall semester. I have a lot of things that I need to work on over the next two and a half weeks. For the most part, these papers and projects aren’t so bad on their own, but because there’s so many of them, they’re all too overwhelming. But since I do have a lot of neat things to work on, here’s a rundown of what those things are.

For Approaches to Everyday Discourse, I have to write two more papers, the first of which is due tomorrow. In this paper I’m doing a genre study of articles appearing in popular news sources that are written about Facebook. Doing a genre study of this nature involves reading a lot of these sorts of articles; my paper requires me to read and analyze 20 articles selected by my professor, but in a true genre study, you can expect to read dozens more samples of whatever you’re analyzing to find shared features of a given genre.

My final paper for Discourse will involve a topic of my choice. I plan on doing research on the rhetoric of internet memes (particularly Advice Animals) and analyzing them as a genre in addition to observing what stories they tell and what it is about them that we as internet users relate to them so well.

For The Hero’s Journey, I have two projects due Monday. The first will involve a paper and a presentation analyzing the hero’s journey in a work of my choice. Though I’m not a huge fan of Powerpoint, it will probably in my best interest to make one to capture my classmates’ attentions and help them understand the movie better. My project will be about the movie Stardust. Other students in my class have presented on Across the Universe, Iron Man, and Pilgrim’s Progress, to name a few examples. My second project is supposed to be a creative project in a medium of my choice that describes my own hero’s journey. I’ll also be presenting this in class. One girl in my class who already presented described her hero’s journey in terms of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors, which was really creative and funny.

In my Grammar and Usage class, I have to give a partner presentation in addition to doing a take-home final. The presentation will involve my partner and I discussing the grammar of the German language and how it relates to and differs from English grammar. My partner and I have taken German for years, so even though that will make the project easier for us, we’re still excited for it because we think German is a neat language and we want to share it with others.

Lastly, for The Nature of Science, I’m working with a group of three guys on a project that has involved us designing an experiment the involves some combination of sticks, boxes, balls, and string, conducting and analyzing the experiment, and presenting our findings to the class in addition to writing a paper about it. Truth be told, I’m pretty nervous about how this is going to go, and it’s the project I’m dreading most out of all the things I need to do between now and December 13, the magical day when my last final takes place and I get to go home for Christmas break. I’m not a big fan of experiments, and since we have to construct and conduct it ourselves, I’m afraid that something isn’t going to work out. I just keep reminding myself that once this class is done, I’ll have my science requirement taken care of!

Needless to say, I’ll be hitting the grind pretty hard tonight (or at least I’ll try), but not before inviting my suite mates to join me in watching the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas tonight at 8. I’ll make myself some hot chocolate and get some paper for paper chains to decorate our suite, and it will be a nice little breather before tonight’s long road ahead.

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Personal Victories

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I’m finally home for Thanksgiving break, and it feels so wonderful! I missed my mom and my puppy and my siblings so much, and we were all very happy to see each other when I returned to my home away from McDaniel.

I was afraid that I wouldn’t have exciting things to share with my folks other than the normal “the semester’s going great, but I’m pretty stressed this time of year,” but in a period of less than 24 hours before heading home, I received not one but two pieces of awesome news!

The first news I received last night after my Hero’s Journey class. Last week, I gave a presentation along with a couple of other girls about elements of the hero’s journey and alchemy in Harry Potter books 5-7. Another group presented about the same things in the first four books. After this week’s class, my professor pulled me and my friend Emily, a girl from the other group, aside to ask that we give a presentation about Harry Potter and the hero’s journey at a conference full of people who use Jungian ideas (the ideas of Carl Jung) in their work.

We’ve actually had a number of interesting guest speakers in The Hero’s Journey whose work is tremendously influenced by Jung–clinical social workers, an art therapist, a woman who practices the I Ching, a shamanic drummer, and even a Vedic astrologist.

Presenting about Harry Potter to these people will be a pretty cool experience. Like any presentation given at a conference, it will also look great on my resume, but most importantly, I’ll have the chance to work closely with one of McDaniel’s many awesome professors to put together a spectacular presentation. The presentation isn’t until April, so Emily and I will have plenty of time to work on this presentation and have this unique experience.

I got more fabulous news when I checked my email after lunch this afternoon! I received an email from Josh Ambrose, the director of McDaniel’s writing center, to tell me that I have been accepted into his peer tutoring course for this spring! By taking this course, I’ll be eligible to be hired in the Writing Center next fall. (So if you come to McDaniel and visit the Writing Center, it’s possible that I’ll help you out with your paper!) I’m super proud to be enrolled in this course now, because I not only want to be a peer writing tutor at the Writing Center but also because I had to get two letters of recommendation and interview with Josh just to get a spot in the class. I was so excited that I was screaming, cheering, and running throughout my suite–much to the annoyance of some of my suite mates who were trying to squeeze in after-lunch naps, as I later found out.

So tonight, I came home very tired but quite proud of myself. I feel victorious! It’s such a great feeling to know that all of the hard work I’ve been putting in this semester is being paid off with meaningful outcomes that are happening right now. I’m hoping that when I get back to campus after break, I’ll be able to use these accomplishments to help motivate myself through the rest of the semester.

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My First Day of Class

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Today was the first day of class! Unfortunately (to me), my first class wasn’t until 1:50 this afternoon, so when people asked me at lunch how my classes were, I wasn’t able to give them an answer! (And because I also have an evening class on Mondays, my answer to that question was pretty much the same at dinner.)

I guess it’s not such a bad thing that I had to wait for my first class though. I actually got up at around 8:30 this morning to work on unpacking more of my things and to go print out some course materials at the library. After a little downtime, I went to Decker to check out the annual Welcome Week poster sale and then had lunch with a couple of friends in Glar.

On my way back to my dorm from lunch, I stopped by the brand new Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO), which is still under construction, and was able to say hi to Jim Mayola, who officially is CEO’s Associate Director of Student Employment and Employer Relations. (I know him better as the really awesome and helpful guy who worked for what used to be Career Services on campus.) It was nice to chat with him, as it is to chat with a lot of people on campus, and because I told him that I had class right when CEO would be giving away cupcakes in Kriel Lounge by Glar, he let me have one early.

At 1:50, I finally had my first class, Grammar and Usage. The instructor is very friendly and enthusiastic, and I think it’s going to be a great class. I’m an English major, but grammar was my first “love” within the realm of English, so between that and the fact that I’m actually pretty good at math, I think things are going to go smoothly.

After class number one, I stopped to chat informally with my adviser, English professor Dr. Becky Carpenter. Becky was my First Year Seminar (FYS) professor last year for a class called Gender, Literature, Culture. She’s a wonderful professor and person, and I was glad to be able discuss my summer and other random things with her.

My afternoon didn’t end there! After I left Hill Hall, where the English department is located, I returned to the poster sale to continue to look through posters, and this time, I left with three. My walls are so much more cheerful with the new posters, but I still need to hang up all the smaller wall decorations I collected over the past year. (Not to mention, I still need to finish unpacking!) I also walked to Rite Aid to get some things that I had left at home and managed not to pick up at Target. Rite Aid is easily within walking distance of campus, but the trip there seemed longer than I remembered; it must have been the heat. From Rite Aid, I went straight to dinner at Glar, which I left 20 minutes before my next and final class of the day.

My evening class is called “The Hero’s Journey,” and it’s taught by psychology professor Paul Mazeroff, who after one class, I can already tell is a great professor and person. The class is my SIS, which stands for Sophomore Interdisciplinary Studies. Similar to how all McDaniel freshmen are required to take a First Year Seminar, all sophomores on campus are required to take an SIS. The Hero’s Journey takes a look at the concept of the hero’s journey throughout myth and storytelling while also introducing concepts in psychology developed and made famous by Carl Jung. Though having a class that’s over three hours long is a little brutal, given the content of the course and the great professor, I think I can survive my first ever evening class!

In the meantime, I’m pretty tired after my first day, so I’m going to go easy on the homework tonight and try to go to bed as early as possible. There will be plenty more time to unpack tomorrow, and with two more classes to attend for the first time, I’m looking forward to what day two has in store!

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Returning to the Hill

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It’s a little amazing to think of how different one’s life can be (and will be) in just a week. Right now, I find myself at home at 8:30 on a Monday evening, in bed working on computer stuff. But exactly one week from now, I will be sitting in “The Hero’s Journey,” my sophomore interdisciplinary studies class, being introduced to Jung and the course itself. (Yes, it’s an evening class. Truth be told, I’m a little nervous about falling asleep during it, but I imagine I’ll adapt. Learning to adapt is another part of college life, after all.)

Sitting in class will definitely be different from sitting at home. More than likely, I’ll use the word “surreal” numerous times throughout the first week to describe being back on campus. Yet at the same time, I have a feeling it will feel so normal! Having already completed a year at McDaniel, I imagine that returning and getting back into the swing of things will fit just like a glove.

Part of what I like about attending a small college like McDaniel is that I’ll be returning to a nice level of familiarity. I know where most things are, I know plenty of friendly people who I can’t wait to be reunited with, and as an Honors student, I’ll even be living in the same dorm again!

Things definitely won’t be the same old, same old though. Like everyone else, I have a new batch of classes this semester, and though I definitely expect some of them to be harder than the courses I took last year, I’m really looking forward to what I’m taking, especially my English classes. Right now, I’m even more excited to meet new people on campus, and living in Honors housing means I’ll be living suite style with freshmen. And of course, I’m excited for what’s new at McDaniel. We have a beautiful new website, a new ID card system, and a brand new Center for Experience and Opportunity that I definitely plan to pay multiple visits to!

Though you wouldn’t be able to tell based on how much I’ve packed so far, excitement is in the air for me as the number of days before my return to McDaniel has reached single digits! I am energized for the days and weeks ahead and I am optimistic that this will be a fantastic semester!

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