Academic Achievement

One week to go. One week left in my undergraduate career. This realization brings in a deluge of conflicting emotions; I am alternately excited to leave and at other times I am quite upset at the prospect. Bittersweet is the best word to describe it.

So anyway, this past week saw the completion of my academic career at Fordham. I finished up my finals and my final papers. It was a grueling week but I think I did well on my exams. On Friday after everything was finished I met up with my good friends and we cooked a nice celebratory dinner. I even made brownies; it was quite a culinary achievement in my opinion.

I also attended my last Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Seminar at Columbia University. As I've mentioned in previous posts, The Professor hosts these seminars, and I've been attending them every month for the past two years. Normally the lecturers speak about topics that are way over my head, but this week the presenter was an archaeologist from Tel Aviv who spoke about the Philistines. Keep in mind that I had just completed a term paper on the Philistines.

Normally I never open my mouth at these seminars; the other attendees are other Columbia profs who are well into their fifties and sixties. Speaking would just reiterate my ignorance. But at this lecture, with a subject that I actually had some background in, I raised my hand and asked a question at the end:

"When examining these artifacts, you mentioned that the primary animal motifs were of bulls or horses. Did you notice the presence of a bird motif? I ask this because the bird motif is a classic Philistine design; it's on contemporaneous Mycenaean pottery and also in the reliefs at Medinet Habu."

Killer question, huh? I couldn't believe myself! The archaeologist, an old, irascible Israeli woman, simply replied in her thick accent: "No. No bird motif."

But it didn't matter. I had opened my mouth and sounded like I actually knew what I was talking about! And it got even better. After the end of the lecture, as the professors were all getting ready to go to dinner, The Professor came up to me.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" he asked. "It's your last lecture, after all. The university will pay for you."

"Really?" I replied, flattered and astounded. "I would love to! Thank you."

So I went out to an Italian restaurant with about seven of the professors. We went to a place close to the University, and the venue was packed with students. It felt a little strange arriving there with a bunch of white haired academics, but what the hell. Over dinner they talked about their days in grad school, debated various theories about the Philistines, and argued about concepts that I had never heard of. I did my best to pay attention and stay engaged, and I am pleased to say that I did well. It was a little nerve-racking, but I held my own. The free wine helped, too.

I viewed that whole night as quite an achievement. I never would have dreamed, four years ago, that I would know enough about archaeology to engage intelligently in debate with seasoned veterans of the field. And I still can't get over the fact that they invited me to dinner!

And now it's Sunday, and this week I will graduate; I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it. There are alot of activities planned for the seniors, and I will try to post more frequently to keep you all updated on this tumultuous, exciting time. Until next time...