The Difference Between Loving Or Hating A Class

Teachers.

That is one of the main secrets of either loving or hating a class...
They have the power to either make you enthusiastic about coming to class every time or not.

My teachers this semester have gone above and beyond in making me want to come to class with their attention to my individual questions, eagerness for me to understand the material, engaging lessons, and so on.

I will admit that I am not a fan of math or science because the subjects come harder to me than others... yet this semester one of my favorite classes is actually a physics class called "Light and Visual Phenomena" with Professor Michael Ruiz.
Not only is his enthusiasm and passion for physics nice to see, but it is also contagious.
He puts the material into terminology that is relatable to everyday aspects of life, without losing the academics of the concepts.
With an easy to use website loaded with videos, demonstrations, activities, and short questions to check your comprehension - it is simple to keep up with the material.
Yet if you do not understand the material, just like all of the teachers here at UNC Asheville, they have office hours in which you can ask questions, set up an appointment, email, and so on.

The math department even has an open lab area with teachers to help with assignments when needed.
This will be a great help to me with my statistics class this semester.

With UNC Asheville's attentiveness to the individual student, it's easier for me to keep up with the material in my classes, no matter if it may originally appear as a daunting challenge such as math or science.

This semester, I walk into physics with an eager smile on, ready to learn about why light appears differently, such as in this photo I took one day.

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Life As A Literature Junky

With the new semester came rainy weather... but that did not deter my teachers and classmates from promoting a warm atmosphere for the first week of new classes.

Dreary Day On The Quad

I walk out of the rain, and into a room in which my classmates and I are discussing topics before class such as our favorite movie versions of Shakespeare's play "Hamlet," the tone the author took for the homework assignment, what kind of writing we love or hate, and most importantly our own type of writing style.

We may be a group of literature lovers in "Literature 240" class who become moved by a romanticized poem about a field of flowers, fall in love with an author's style of writing, or cry at moving points of a novel, such as the loss of a lover; but I feel like we can be considered more than that.

Everyone has their niche...
Something they take a profound pride in, whether it is enthusiasm about an algorithm for math, or a new piece of music - we all have something that moves us.

At UNC Asheville, students are able to find that niche...
Or multiple ones they love and find the one best for their future profession.

For instance, I'm an art lover and can talk constantly about it.
But writing moves me.

I become so passionate when I talk about readings I've done, pieces I've written, and things I cannot wait to write.

When you become so passionate about something that you just feel an emotional change in yourself, that is when you know it is an aspect to keep in your life.

I've known for awhile that I love to write and read, it's just a type of connection that is hard for me to find elsewhere... but all of my classes at school have only instilled this realization from this year...
Who knows, maybe I could have been a math lover?
That's what liberal arts schools want to make sure - that you know for sure what you are passionate about; this is one of the main goals of UNC Asheville that they fulfill by having you take a little bit of every subject.

As I sit here, I can't help but think of my favorite pieces of literature...
Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Lord Byron, Jane Austen; and then of course modern writers such as Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, L.J. Smith, and so on.

Literature is a part of me, and I'm thankful that I can express it here.

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