Spring Break

Spring break is coming. The end of the break is the due day of the take home mid-term exam of my ancient urbanism course. It is two 2 ½ page papers. I have half finished the first one, but feel it is so difficult. I gave myself a lot of excuse to refuse to work on it. I don’t know how I can finish it.

I got an A- on my first American history paper. Even though I am aware of the difficulties of Jefferson’s book, I am still somehow disappointed. I always expect As because I don’t take too many courses and always leave enough time to study. I don’t lose any chance to get assistance from other people or institutions. Anyway, I accept the fact, and try to do better in the future.

Next week there is no class, but I need work from Monday to Wendesday. I will use my work time to study the mid-term papers.

Emerson Paper

I finished my second paper of the course of American history. The topic is about Emerson and his ideas on nature and individualism. When I wrote Jefferson’s paper, I felt Jefferson’s book is hard to be understood. But, I realized that Emerson’s writing was even harder. I think one of the reasons could be that Emerson is a poet and philosopher. Even though I could not understand many parts of Emerson’s essays, the understandable parts are very interesting to me. It is intellectual pleasure.

Barry likes to talk with me the paper of Emerson too. He said I mixed some Buddhist idea into my Emerson paper. When I mentioned this point to my writing tutor, he said he didn’t think like that way. Probably, it is because he doesn’t have too much knowledge about Eastern philosophy. But he is really awesome that I can perceive his high level understanding of philosophy.

My MA thesis is supposed to be 75 page in lengthy. When I think about how many hours I need to compose a 6 page paper, I really cannot image how I can finish the thesis. Anyway, I am starting thinking about it now. If I have free time in the summer, I’d like concentrate on the initial work of it.

Sometimes I ask myself if it is worthy to spend much of my life time on solitary reading and writing. Can I do something else less pressure and more exciting? However, I have to admit that I value the pressure. It is the most important factor to stimulate my ultimate success.