Academic Love

This is going to be a post that I might rethink later on in the term when the work is starting to get to me, so I'm going to post it now. 

The past two weeks, while crazy, have been amazing! I am a person who doesn't particularly like writing essays, making this whole SCIO program a challenge for me since we write one or two essays a week. However, I have realized that I love researching. Yes, at times it isn't very fun, but other times it is. When I am in a rush and only looking for what I need, researching is stressful, but when I have time and I can relax a little, I love it.

Tonight, I was reading The Cambridge Companion to Frances Burney as part of my research on Evelina (a great novel). The chapter on Burney's family was very interesting to me and I was glad I read it. Even though it may not directly relate to my essay on her novel, it does help me know a little more about her personal life and how it affected the novels she wrote.

My previous three essays on John Keats, Andrew Marvell, and William Blake have also taught me more about the individual poets and the time they lived in. While I never used to think that reading nonfiction was very entertaining, my hope is to read more of it when I return home after the program. I love learning about the author's lives and the reasoning behind their works. 

I know that later on in the term I will look back and think, "Why would I have ever seen this as fun?" I'm hoping then that I can look back and regain some of the joy I feel at this moment. I am truly going to miss academic work after graduation in May. As a memento, here's some pictures of my studying so far this term.