Random Post 2

Non-major Classes that I Enjoyed in College

The first one would be Classic and Medieval Western Philosophy. This class took me by surprise. Although a good portion of the material was somewhat annoying because it was difficult to decipher, I did learn a lot regarding the many ways of approaching life. There were two concepts that were quite memorable. One was Epicetetus' approach to managing stress. He stated that it was important for us to identify what we can and can't control. This is a lot easier said than done. We should then focus our efforts only on things we can control to mitigate stress and unnecessary negative emotions. Another concept was from Epicurus' Hedonism. He believed that life should be aimed at freeing ourselves from physical and mental pain. I believe these concepts were memorable because of my situation. When I was taking this class, I had been alone in America for 3 months because of the pandemic. 

The second class would be Theatre Improv. This class was by far the most interactive and allowed us to develop our creativity. We spent a lot of time acting out stories on the fly and learning how to react appropriately to unplanned situations. We spent a lot of time playing games that involved articulation. I thought it was particularly interesting when our professor connected the class to the corporate world, and the most important lesson was on how to accept failure gracefully. 

The third class would be Intro to International Relations. I thought there were many interesting topics in this class. One was evaluating the usefulness of global organizations, such as the U.N. I only realized through this class that many global organizations are quite biased. They are basically tools for the powerful to maintain the status quo. An example would be powerful countries dictating the loan's terms when smaller countries borrow from the IMF. The class got really interesting when we started talking about terrorism. I always thought it would be simple for the U.S. to deal with terrorism given the massive military budget. Apparently, terrorists employ a wide range of strategies that allows them to be elusive and destructive.