What I Learned Presentation

That, Anyways, is What I Have Learned

This class has opened my eyes to the mythology world and helped me realize that all mythologies are real. For the first time, I knew not all gods are flawless. Most Greek gods have dispositions just like human beings; they have sexual desires; they battle with family for power like people do in the Downton Abbey, and they can be just as selfish as humans. Our everyday life is a myth, and everything that happens to us is a displaced myth. For me, all we have learned in this class fall into three categories: life, death, and love.

At this point of life, no one is really short of stories to tell. The difference is some more than the others, and some are more interesting than the others. Or, should I say, they are all as interesting as a red wheelbarrow, we are just too numb to see the fun. The reason why I think mythology is all about death, life, and love, is because I think the theme of suffering is already included in life. One does not simply talk about life without mentioning about suffering, because the most memorable things are the awful ones, and life is the assemble of memories. In fact, in my opinion, life is all about suffering and we live somewhere in between life and hell. We are able to enjoy peaceful moments because we understand the pain wars bring; if there were no comparison, there would be no pain, but also no joy. For instance, writing five papers in my final’s week is a huge misery, and getting up this morning was some impressive suffering. But they are a part of college life that I can’t avoid.

Isn't that why we did presentations on the topic of initiation? Life is a painful process, and it is precious and worth fighting for because it has an end. We know the fear of death and that’s why we treasure every minute we breath; we know that honor will follow after pain and that’s why we accept challenges courageously. “The gods get bored with men who have no stories,” Calasso said. Indeed, imagine living an immortal life and there is nothing that can hurt you physically or mentally, would you still call that living? If we can’t get hurt, what is the point of fighting? And without the efforts made for survival, what is the point of living? Even the gods would cast aside those who with no stories. There must be something great after every agony; it is so great that driven by this thought, students can get up every morning and go to school.

One thought I was inspired by this class is that true love is worth waiting for. When the time isn't ripe, the more you want to capture the one you like, the more likely you are going to harm that person. Greek gods and legends make great examples for this: Zeus’s affection for Io turn her into a gadfly and Apollo’s passion transformed Daphne into a laurel tree. If they could repress their lust and just wait for the right timing maybe none of that would happen. Love is, after all, wanting all the best for that person instead of controlling and possessing this person for selfish reasons. Sometimes we just have to wait for the right moment to express feelings and to make the decision of being in a relationship. Now, I may act like I know what love is, but actually I don’t. Because there is no such thing as love, it is just a fantasy. Because just like empathy, love is only an expression of our imagination.

Death may not be the end, and life is enriched by each individual’s reflection of death. No one knows what is waiting for us behind the door of death and what we will become in the after life. Maybe there is reincarnation, perhaps there will be a judge to determine if we are going to Heaven or Hell.  But the unknown is what makes us better people, if we are sure about where we are going after death, some may just lose the motivation to live or fight for anything. And because we begin at the same starting lines and we are kind of sure we are all going to the same place after we die, we have the urge to compete with others.

After all, I think what I’m trying to say is that, we are who we decide to be, and there are only three things we have no control of: life, death, and the love for someone. Of course, by life I mean suffering, and by love I mean an unrealistic dream. Only death is true. As Persephone goes back to the underworld, it is time to leave this class. But it is only the first part of mythology: separation. We will encounter other myths as we step out of the classroom; we will suffer, and we will return. Because somewhere in our brain, there contains memories about Lit 285, and whenever we recall this memory, we will travel back to room 1122. When I first moved to this country, I felt absolutely no belonging. No matter how cheerful the crowd is, I always feel like living in another world. It was like everyone around me was writing about their own stories, and I was not even a little dot in their literature. But I’m glad I got to take this class, and learned that I am not in the worst place, which is outside of the story. I am more than a dot, because I am the main character of my own story.