I have finally finished my first semester of college, and have not been on the blogosphere for quite some time, so I knew it was necessary to start up again over Christmas break. Since my first semester of college was a really great learning experience, I am going to share a few thoughts over the span of a couple blog posts.
Context, context, context
Language, literature, learning, and life happens in a certain context (yes an engineering major just made an alliteration). This may be the biggest reason why understanding and relating to others is so difficult. This has a definite application to literature which I experienced this past semester. In my Classical Western Literature class (a.k.a. Comp 1) we read books written by people such as Homer, Virgil, and Aeschylus. In many ways, these books were confusing to me, but they started to make more sense after my professor explained the ways in which the author's context dictated his writing, and how the author's writing influenced his context and culture. Similarly, when trying to get a grasp on the Bible, knowing the context helps immensely in understanding the meaning present in the Bible. Context both unites people with common time periods and/or locations yet at the same time separates people with contrasting time periods and/or locations.
I notice this effect of uniting and dividing most notably in the area of sarcasm. Sarcasm is quite possibly the best way to measure how well you know someone. Just about everyone has been in a situation where sarcasm is used, but instead of providing everyone with a laugh, it leads to confusion and/or pits people against each other. Think of this example: your good friend makes an allusion to a previous joke or situation, and while you totally understand the reference, no one else has a clue what he/she is talking about. Granted, we often use sarcasm on a whim without thinking, but misunderstanding through sarcasm can be explained in the nature of sarcasm. Sarcasm implies a shared context between the people involved, and those outside of that context do not understand the language that is being used. It is an easy example of the role context plays in our lives.
Coming back from college has been essentially a journey back into the context that I had been a part of for the first 18-19 years of my life. Unsurprisingly, that context has changed in many ways and I do not play the same role that I used to play. This is not a bad thing, but rather the natural result of being gone for 4 months. This has definitely taken some adjusting; sometimes I almost feel out of place since I have been gone from my Dallas context for so long. I now understand why my older friends are sometimes so anxious to get back to school, the context in which they feel the most at home.
It takes much work and initiative in order to re-involve oneself in a previous context. With my family, it takes a lot of talking about the events that have taken place in their lives and mine over the past 4 months. It may seem redundant and awkward at first, but in the end, it is necessary in order to do life with your family and old friends again. Even though you may have been great friends before, it is often necessary to "get acquainted" once again, or else your relationship may end up shallow, something that I try to avoid in my life. In a nutshell, getting back into the swing of things at home is a lot of work (I really wish my transition sentences were this good while I was still in composition.... Check back in later for my next post).
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