Hey! Sorry it's been a while, but I've been doing a lot of catching up with friends! That's the great thing about being a sophomore -- you get right into the swing of things with friends and you get to avoid that awkward, nervous, scared part that comes from meeting new people. At least that's how I was but clearly everything worked out well and I have a great group of friends! Another weird thing about student life as a sophomore is that I'm no longer the youngest. When I walk through campus, I don't have to walk around knowing that I'm the newbie and everyone else is either older than me or in the same boat. It felt so much easier to distinguish freshman, but now I have no clue who is new or who is old. It's an interesting facet to moving up the ladder.

Another sophomore-y thing is civ. Now, honors seminars are from 2:30-4:20 once a week, and it always intimidates me, even if I've read all the material and I know my stuff. Last year, we had a set of reading questions that we filled out and went over in seminar. Sometimes, we'd just go around the table reading off our answers. This year is much different. For my class, the professors (no fathers this year) post discussion questions on ANGEL for you to look over. You don't have to even write out answers -- it's just something to think about. And I love that we don't base the discussion off of questions that we may find arbitrary or boring. My professors collaborated and thus the intellectual journal was born. We don't have exams or quizzes (not even finals or midterms!), but instead we write two entries per week. One is for seminar, in which we pick out a passage and talk about why we think it's important or interesting. The next is sort of like the week in review, where we connect what we've been learning about that week to other things we learned in that week and before, as well as how they relate to certain common questions of that period (such as, should the people rule themselves?) So far, I'm loving it. I don't stress over knowing every single detail, but instead I take away the important things and relate them to other things. And I think that's what DWC is all about -- learning how history and literature and philosophy and theology all intertwine and form off of each other. So A+, civ. I'm having a blast.

Check back soon -- I'm working on an entry with some pictures about the tutoring center and all the improvements going into the library for us!