Someone save me from CC

Dear Lit Hum, 

I never would have imagined that I would be writing this letter. If you told me just a mere 6 months ago that I would be nostalgic for a class that forced me to read countless hours of Greek and Roman literature, I would laugh in your face. No way I would miss the anxiety of getting a good participation grade with my unimpressive comments or the passage IDs that caused way more stress than necessary, but alas, here I am. 

After just one (1) month in Contemporary Civilizations, I would do just about anything to return to my classroom on the sixth floor of Hamilton, third coffee of the day in hand, and only about half the reading completed with Sparknotes open in another tab.

How I miss small group work and class discussions where my classmates and I would trace themes across texts, compare translators, and decode confusing plot lines. How I miss plot. One thing they don’t tell you about CC is that it’s no longer enough to be a smart reader and make comments about normal literary conventions. Somehow, you’re expected to turn into an insightful philosopher overnight, whose contributions are surprising, argumentative, and thought-provoking. And as someone who uses most of my speaking time to ask questions and make abstract observations, this isn’t ideal. 

If one more person asks me to explain the philosophical or political implications of a random sentence in the Bible that I thought sounded cool, I might explode. Bring me back to the days when commenting about glory in the Iliad or gender roles in Pride and Prejudice was enough to warrant praise from my Professor. 

While I expected to love CC as a humanities major, where my whole day is spent reading theoretical texts concerning many of the same topics in the CC syllabus, this class is simply a different beast. The texts are confusing, the workload is intensified, and the expectations are much higher. 

Now I know I’m not the only one with these grievances, and I may just sound like a second-year who got too comfortable with my freshman-year workload, but the way I feel about this class has driven me into such deep anguish that instead of working on the essay that I’ve already requested two extensions on, I am furiously writing this article. 

Like I was told last year about Lit Hum, I’ve heard that the Spring Semester of CC is better, so here’s hoping I’m not back here in March telling you the opposite. 

Lit hum, I miss you so much. And I know that no core class will ever be able to compete with you. 

PSA to the first-years: please, please, please, do not take your Lit Hum for granted, because trust me, it only gets worse from here. 

Yours, 

A stressed and disappointed sophomore

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