I wasn't sure what to expect from Honors Forum. I had attended it once before I became a student at Jones, when my older brother, the living legend Caleb Houston, was still going there. I tagged along one time, I can't remember why, and sat in the library while he attended classes. During a break, he came back to check on me and asked if I would like to go to his next class with him. I figured it would be better than playing games on his laptop, so I agreed to come along. I've always been afraid of new people, and was even more so back then, but once everyone found out I was Caleb's brother, they were the nicest people you could meet.
We played a game where a circle of people join hands and crowd together to make the circle tight. Then, you put someone in the middle of the human fence and they try to get out. The secret is to just ask, and the fence-people will let you out. It was supposed to illustrate that the problems we face in life could be a lot easier if we would just ask for help. We did some other things which I don't really remember, and then it was over. I thought it was one of the coolest classes I'd ever been in, so naturally when I decided to go to Jones I joined the Honors Institute. The full tuition coverage and book money they offered didn't hurt, either. Now that I've been in it for a while, my view of it has changed somewhat.
Of course I couldn't appreciate this from just one visit, but there's a lot of work that goes in to Honors. Also, and I know this will make me sound conceited (which I guess I sort of am), but I'm not used to being around people that are smarter than me. Whenever I hung out with my old friends, they would get annoyed with me for knowing more about things than they did. Whenever they had questions about troubling concepts in school, or were just curious about something, they would ask me and I would tell them about it. It wasn't long before I developed a reputation as the smart kid. When I went to Jones however, the people I met in Honors were as smart or smarter than me. It was humbling to say the least, but I finally realized that there are a lot of people in the world who are a lot more intelligent than I am.
Overall, the Charles Pickering Honors Institute has been a great experience for me, even though I joke about being in an "Institution" sometimes. I have a feeling I'll be drawing from the resources it has given me for a long time.
We played a game where a circle of people join hands and crowd together to make the circle tight. Then, you put someone in the middle of the human fence and they try to get out. The secret is to just ask, and the fence-people will let you out. It was supposed to illustrate that the problems we face in life could be a lot easier if we would just ask for help. We did some other things which I don't really remember, and then it was over. I thought it was one of the coolest classes I'd ever been in, so naturally when I decided to go to Jones I joined the Honors Institute. The full tuition coverage and book money they offered didn't hurt, either. Now that I've been in it for a while, my view of it has changed somewhat.
Of course I couldn't appreciate this from just one visit, but there's a lot of work that goes in to Honors. Also, and I know this will make me sound conceited (which I guess I sort of am), but I'm not used to being around people that are smarter than me. Whenever I hung out with my old friends, they would get annoyed with me for knowing more about things than they did. Whenever they had questions about troubling concepts in school, or were just curious about something, they would ask me and I would tell them about it. It wasn't long before I developed a reputation as the smart kid. When I went to Jones however, the people I met in Honors were as smart or smarter than me. It was humbling to say the least, but I finally realized that there are a lot of people in the world who are a lot more intelligent than I am.
Overall, the Charles Pickering Honors Institute has been a great experience for me, even though I joke about being in an "Institution" sometimes. I have a feeling I'll be drawing from the resources it has given me for a long time.
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