I haven't been on here in forever! Would you still like to know how Community College isn't such a horrible place after all? Of course you would!
So I find that in the beginning of coming to community college last summer there were a lot of worries that I had. Personally I wasn't one to be wild and crazy, or draw things on the sides of peoples cars, so seeing this kind of behavior kind of frightened me. I met a girl in my English 111 class and she told me I needed to get a belly button ring (while she was currently fighting a navel infection at that very second.). There were so many things I wanted to do rather than be there, but everything started changing. My views started changing.
The campus was bigger if you walked around and they had a lovely flower garden. In between the buildings there was a large horticulture place that people planted and watered flowers. It was a beautiful little place and I always found a nice spot to eat my lunch at in peace. In the last few weeks of being at community college this became my safe haven because I needed a place to get away from the world and people for a little while.
So this past year of my life I have been working on getting my first two semesters done in Photographic Technologies (Photography). Let me tell you something...unless you know exactly what you're getting in to, odds are you will end up learning something you never thought you could learn from some majors. You will meet people that at first meeting seem like the nicest and end up being snakes, or they could look really scary and end up being super sweet. My first photography class was hard as the dickens, but everyone was sincere in everyone getting through their project completely. My second semester was a night class with a teacher who taught 14 hour days. He was wired from coffee and cursed like a sailor, but that man knew every bit of what he was teaching us better than the book. Our tiny class of 4 got through with the majority of the projects in no time, and our team work with each other fit nicely. At the end of the semester we were allowed to go out to O'Charlies rather than bring food to the school and what not. It was awesome, and we really got to know each other on a personal level that night. I mean, nothing too personal, but it wasn't the classroom anymore and everyone could relax and eat great food and just talk. I can almost bet you that I will never experience that ever again for a college class. Ever.
Art was a big hobby that I picked up after joining my first Art class in the first semester. Art Appreciation seemed like an easy course to some, but unless you had a fun teacher it actually would have sucked. Thankfully, our teacher wanted us to have hands on. The majority could have cared less after they realized they had an easy teacher, thought it would be an easy A, but they were wrong. I was introduced to art again, and it changed my life. I had been in art classes when I was maybe 10 and I was forced to be a perfectionist and decided it wasn't for me. She taught us that we didn't have to be perfect, because the art we made was our own. No one elses, and if anyway had anything to say about it they could kiss our ass. That class soon led into Drawing 1 for myself. Our teacher was a bit of a push over, but he was really cool. He mainly worked as a potter in his free time and for a day job he thought Art Appreciation. Our Drawing 1 class was literally the pioneers of Drawing one's for the near future. The entire class blossomed in their abilities to draw better, and the loud kids weren't quite as obnoxious after they realized that everyone could hear everything they said. Then it ended up that I made friends with a group that would sneak out on sunny days. I went with them on a few of their expeditions and left my other "friend" back in the class room. (That's a different story all in and of itself). Our finals were portraits. Portraits. We never took a quiz, or a test, it was always just drawing, two days out of the week for three hours. It was amazing, and I loved it.
Music Appreciation. This class ended up having some crazy characters in it. I ended up being the shy funny girl. We had to make skits, and one was what questions we would ask if we had met three composers. So, I ended up being Hyden and someone told me I had to make up an accent. Their suggestion....sound like a terrorist. Not sure how a "terrorist" sounds like, because anyone could be one truthfully, so I just started talking with a strange accent and went from there. I had people laughing and cracking up and tried to keep a straight face. The skits and making music was a blast. Thankfully we moved the seats to the back of the room where the huge wall mirror was. No one was distracted anymore, and everyone could be more at ease without having the feeling of being watched at all times. A lady who was a veteran from the armt kept things interesting, and a little group in the back always made an uproar and kept us all laughing throughout the semester. On the last day we had a presentation to do. We had to bring food and represent it as whatever form, texture, or vocabulary word we had chose. To say the least, it was quite amusing.
Taking appreciation classes doesn't mean that you're going to get an easy A, it means that you're going into a class to learn something new about something you think you already know about, and in return it usually proves you wrong. Both of the appreciation classes that I took gave me a broader view on what exactly art and music meant. It wasn't just a bunch of artists, or a bunch of instruments. It was so much more, and it was shown in a whole new way that no one had ever taught me before. I learned to APPRECIATE what I was learning and I could then begin to understand how to create this music and art the way it was truly meant to be created as.
In conclusion, all of the classes that I took were really amazing. I've taken a few math classes as well as only to apply with protocol for getting my major in photography. Everything that I've learned so far as not gone so much to waste as it has to broadening my horizons. I am truly lucky to be able to have this, and I thank God for having this freedom.
