The Pursuit of an Ideal Calculus is, to say the least, not my favorite class. I struggle through the homework problems and feel more often than not that trying to figure them out is about as productive as hitting my head against a wall. One day, frustrated to the point of tears, I slammed my book shut and asked why the heck I had to take this class. Once I’d calmed down a little bit, I stepped back and reminded myself that nobody was making me take this class. I had chosen to take it. After that small realization, I tried to remember why I had originally chosen to take Calculus.   Then I remembered what my original goal in college had been, after having lost sight of it in the flurry of activity, homework, reading, and adjusting that accompanied the beginning of the year – to pursue the original definition of a Liberal Arts education and ultimately the ideal of Leonardo da Vinci’s Renaissance Man.   Perhaps I’m just enamored of the idea of perfection, but when I researched the ideal during sophomore year, I was struck – hard – by the realization that that was what I wanted to be. After that, pursuing a college education become synonymous with pursuing that ideal. So in my search for a University, I looked for interdisciplinary programs. I wanted to purse my interest in a wide variety of subjects, instead of “sacrific[ing it] to…some specific trade or profession, or study or science” (Newman 312). I didn’t want the classes I could take to be limited by my major. I did not want to be trained for a career or a profession, but to gain “an acquired faculty of judgment, of clear-sightedness, or sagacity, of wisdom, of philosophical reach of mind, and or intellectual self-possession and repose”(Newman 312). However, I not only wanted the chance to pursue a variety of subjects, but I also wanted to learn with a group of people who were equally passionate about learning. I sought out a University with an educational community in which my peers would be “zealous for their own sciences… [and] brought…to respect, to consult, to aid each other. Thus [creating] a pure and clear atmosphere of thought” (309). For me, it’s not enough to simply pursue an education on my own, because I know I learn and grow so much by studying,discussing, and interacting with my peers.   So the next time I’m feeling frustrated about Calculus, I’ll just reassure myself that “any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward” (Newman 309).