Entry #1

I’m currently undecided in the college of Arts and Sciences. In high school most of the classes I took were humanities courses such as international relations, history, government etc. Senior year I ended up taking AP Chemistry really only because I liked the teacher and a number of my friends were in the class. Even though I had never thought I liked science, I didn’t mind chemistry nearly as much as I thought I would and actually even enjoyed it at times. Consequently, I decided to take a science class my first semester at Cornell. I decided on Introduction to Botany since I’m into gardening and I figured it would be good to know more about the mechanics of plant life. My other classes are Introduction to American Studies, and Plagues and People.

I grew up in Cohasset Massachusetts, which is a small, coastal, almost entirely white town. Most people in Cohasset are upper middle-class Republicans who like the beach and the Red Sox. There was almost no diversity at my high school; the two or three blacks students in each grade were part of this METCO program where inner city students were given the chance to attend a suburban school. I liked Cohasset and I liked growing up there but at the same time there wasn’t very much to do there so I guess I’m happy to have gone someplace bigger.

In terms of interests and hobbies, I ran track throughout high school and even though I’m not on any sports teams here, I still like to run for leisure. I also like to shop, see movies, go to the beach, and hang out with friends.

Writing well means being concise but still making a point. I hate it when I have to read a book or an essay for a class that is convoluted and confusing. One of my favorite books is Brave New World because it just as such a natural flow to it⎯it bothers me when I have to keep re-reading a page just to understand it. Also, good writing makes some argument so when you come to the end of it you feel like there was some value in what you just read. Even though I’d like to think that I value what an author has to say the most, I’m still really impressed by sophisticated language and clever witticisms. It was my experience in high school that sometimes (even though I don’t necessarily think this is right) even if an author doesn’t make a really good point if he writes really well people can be just as impressed.

For the paper about one sentence, I chose my sentence because I thought it mirrored the overall structure and theme of Du Bois’s first essay. I struggled with whether or not to focus narrowly on the sentence or to incorporate more of Du Bois’s overall message in my essay. Also, I think I could have improved on how I structured my paragraphs⎯I’m not sure if I made my conclusions as clear as they could have been.

In my hometown there’s this service project called ASP (Appalachia Service Project) where we go to poor areas in Appalachia and help fix up people’s houses. This first got me interested in the South because before I went there I never realized how different it was from the North. So I guess I want to learn about what makes Mississippi unique in its ideas, ways of life, industry, and history. I think there are misconceptions and certainly a lot of stereotypes about Southerners and I want to shed these and instead gain an understanding of how Mississippi transformed from a slave state to its present state. Finally, I want to become familiar with the people who helped shape Mississippi’s history. If Mississippi is truly a microcosm then by gaining an understanding of this one state we’ll also be able to understand our nation.