Cool Cat's Portfolio

“…a well-beaten ground like the junction of three roads, or a cross-roads open to all” (318F).

From personal experience, liberal arts really is a crossroads. I love finding connections in my classes that I would never expect. The little surprises are what I love about college. The knowledge is like a puzzle I have to put together. I enrolled in a regular rhetoric class my second semester, not knowing it was an emphasis on Japanese literature. The course and professor pulled me away from accounting and towards liberal arts. I independently researched Japanese horror films that semester, presenting my work towards the end of the year at a conference in Houston. Afterwards, I put my research to rest.

The following semester I wanted a break from Japanese literature, and until recently I thought I had isolated myself from the topic. But of course, I had to find another area where the roads crossed. I had taken a linguistics course which connected Japanese literature, but did not realize the crossroads until this semester.

And now I reach the present where I’m now taking a Japanese language course and Introduction to Buddhism in order to increase my knowledge about Japanese culture. The linguistics course helps tremendously with pronunciation in both classes. I’m taking these courses to further my current research, but in doing so, I found an unlikely connection. I never thought that Buddhism and Victorian literature would relate, but the readings have proved me wrong.

“The study of the Veda…can thus be compared with the Trivium; while two, viz. astronomy and metrics, belong to the domain of mathematics, and therefore to the Quadrivium” (318F).