Dear Sir,
When I sat to write the very first e-mail to you after the first SAT class I attended, I continuously kept on pressing backspace, because whatever I wrote seemed to be of the wrong language. However, when I looked at your blog, I realized that the first draft I wrote was most appropriate, and not the one I sent to you. This made me realize that I can be a little too fussy about things-enough to cause damage at times.
I previously felt that it was lame to pour out all that I felt about the things you referred to in class and thought I should just mail you if I'm stuck anywhere. I am not implying that I have the ability to easily understand all the intricate details about the great works you have referred to in class, but I just didn't feel like there is anything more to ask about them. Reading the blogspot made me realize that it's not only about asking about things I don't understand, it's about refections on the things affecting us related to your class. Just letting you know, yes I am doing SAT practice tests at home, it was kind of embarassing to tell you that I take an awefully long time to get an entire test done-much longer than anyboby else I think. Anyways, that still does not make up for my sins.
I have made my own collegeboard account. I did face certain obstacles during the time, as an additional form came up, which I was not expecting, but those were trivial and easily solved.
My next step was to sit and read throughly through the green booklet, and I have until the section about American Literature. I have read only about Christopher Columbus yesterday, and looked up neocolonialism, where paternalistic neocolonialism struck me. I immediately got reminded of Caliban, about who we frequently talked about in class. I have done this certain play in my english literature class,back in class 8, and we even watched the movie version of it together in school, therefore I was actually looking forward to watching a theatre performance of something which I can personally relate to.
By then, since I had already sat down to look up the references you made in class, the most interesting topic that reached out to me from the lined pages of my diary was humorism. It was quite fascinating to read about a certain branch of medicine (if it can be called that...can it?) that is completely different from what I am familiar with, or have ever read or heard about. I completely missed out the four words which you had mentioned in class, but upon reading about the- they easily left an imprint in my mind. What is even more intriguing, is that philosophy had been used to cure, and since it was carried out untill the 19th century, it must have worked well in most cases. This gave me a whole new perspective to medicine.
Back to my own table to do a SAT practice test. Later I returned to the internet connection in my parent's room to read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations", the condensed version of course, and hushed anyone trying to talk to me at that time. The reason for my rapt attention is that I could relate to a lot of his philosophies, and have found myself at numerous times, pondering over the things mentioned. As I moved my eyes away from the screen, feeling triumphant about finally finishing the 4100 words, including re-reading certain paragraphs, I looked up at the clock to see it was already midnight. It was time to go to bed, but the words " Ode to a Nightingale" on my diary was calling out to me, daring me to look them up. So I did. But soon enough my eyelids became extremely heavy and I remembered your words-"Go sleep". And that's exactly what I did. See? I do listen to you.
(Author Identity Undisclosed)
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