My Day At The Zoo

 

The zoo has always been associated with pleasant memories for me. I am from Omaha, Nebraska where the number one ranked zoo in the country is located, so I spent many days of my childhood at the zoo. I remember how easily my sister and I would laugh at the gorillas coming up to the window and banging on it or the giraffes eating leaves from the trees that they could reach with their long necks. I felt like I was right back to my childhood when I visited the zoo this weekend. I spent lots of time walking around and seeing all of my favorite animals. The giraffes have always been my favorite attraction at the zoo so I spent a long part of the afternoon watching them. I got lucky because just when I was about to leave a couple of the zoo staff members came to the feed the giraffes. The picture I have included depicts a humorous moment that I witnessed. The zoo staff member got up on the ladder to feed the giraffes leaves. Right when the giraffes saw the zoo staff member start to climb the ladder, four of them quickly moved towards the fence. There was another family with three children watching with me and the zoo worker turned to us and said “Apparently food is the best way to get anyone’s attention”. We all chuckled to ourselves because just like humans are pretty easily influenced by food, so are the animals. The need for food is a natural instinct. From this experience the theory that laughter is contagious was not really proven since everyone was laughing in unison, though I do believe that theory to be true. I think the one thing that stood out to me most about humor from my day at the zoo was how amused children are by the animals, just as I was as a child. When walking around since it was the weekend, there were lots of families at the zoo. I saw lots of moments of laughter and smiles from children throughout the day. These moments of humor caused the children’s parents to smile which does prove the theory that laughter is contagious. When people, especially the parent of a child, sees laughter or a smile, it is hard not to join in. The zoo is a great place to enjoy nature and the animals always seem to do something funny that brings a smile to everyone’s face. I had a great time observing the animals and the reactions of the other people enjoying a fun day at the zoo.

My Sixth Meeting With Angela

Angela and I met for the final time and I realized how sad I was to be done meeting with her. We had found many similarities between the two of us and had formed a real friendship through the conversation partner program. I was excited to know though that just because this semester was over, our friendship was not. We talked a lot about both of our plans for the future during our last meeting. Angela wants to return to Colombia and finish her degree after she completes the intensive English program at TCU and then eventually return to the United States and pursue a master’s degree. I have tried to learn a new language before, quite unsuccessfully, and I cannot overstate how much respect I have for what Angela is doing. To leave her family and friends behind, come to a country where she knows no one, and embark on a difficult journey is a pretty courageous thing to do. I told her about my plans to pursue a degree in marketing at TCU and then move back to Omaha and work for a non-profit organization. Eventually though, my real goal is to get married and raise a family. Though I have many career and personal aspirations, family is the most important thing to me and I value being a mom over all of my other goals. Angela and I reflected back on the semester and realized we had learned so much about one another and our different cultures. We had no problem communicating, which was the main fear we both had going into this semester. Talking with one another had given us such a new perspective on our own lives. I think throughout this process the most important thing I learned is that though someone is from a different country or speaks a different language then you, this does not mean that you are different from them. I have found more similarities between me and Angela then I have with some people that I grew up with in Omaha, Nebraska. Angela and I share many of the same values and this is where all of our other similarities stem from. This semester has been a great experience in learning something new about a different culture as well as learning about myself through the process, not to mention making a great new friend.

My Fifth Meeting With Angela

I have always thought that the best way to get to know someone better is to learn about their childhood. People are formed by important role models in their lives such as their parents and siblings and the experiences they have while growing up. I wanted to especially know what Angela’s childhood was like growing up in a country different from the United States. She said she loved growing up in Colombia because everyone is happy there and always has a smile on their face. The community is strong and everyone looks out for one another. She said growing up in such a positive environment made her childhood great and she has many wonderful memories from growing up in Colombia. She said her favorite specific memory is Sundays spent with her family. Every Sunday her whole extended family comes over for lunch that her dad cooks. We had talked about how close Angela was with her family before and how much she loves her dad’s cooking. This was something we had in common because my mom is a great cook and my family had dinner together every night as well as Sunday lunch when I lived a home. Angela said though she misses Colombia she loves it here in the United States. She does want her children to grow up in Colombia though because she loved her childhood and wants the same for her own children. She kept restating how happy the people in Colombia where and she thinks that is a great environment for children to grow up in. This was something we had in common as well because I loved growing up in Omaha and want to raise my family there. I think when you had such a good childhood and memories from growing up somewhere, you want your own children to experience the same thing. Angela and I have found many similarities between the two of us but I think the most important one is our love for our families. We both come from close extended and immediate families that we have created great memories with. It is fun for us to share these stories of growing up and about our families with one another and learn about the experiences that have formed each of us.

My Second Fit of Unrestrained Laughter

Breaking into fits of unrestrained laughter is probably one of my favorite things to experience. There is nothing like spending time with close family and friends and sharing a moment of pure joy with them. I love the feeling of laughing so hard that you can barely catch your breath, your eyes start to water, and your stomach even begins to hurt. You have no control over it and you cannot make the laughter stop. I was recently celebrating the birthday of a close friend at Joe T’s in Fort Worth. All of our close friends were in attendance to help our friend celebrate her birthday. Every one enjoyed dinner and was in high spirits. Birthdays seem to always put people in a good mood. As dinner came to a close, our waitress brought a cupcake with a single candle in it to my friend. The entire group began to sing happy birthday in unison. My friend Abby was particularly enthused about the song and got slightly too excited. She accidentally skipped forward in the sing missing the second “Happy Birthday to you” and jumping forward to the “Happy Birthday dear April.” She was singing incredibly loudly too which just drew even more attention to the fact that she was at the wrong part of the song. The group continued to sing but everyone sitting in Abby’s general area could not help but bust into unrestrained laughter. She was singing so loudly and so enthusiastically making it incredibly noticeable that she was at the wrong part of the song. I barely made it through the rest of the song because I was laughing so uncontrollably. This event sticks out in my head as a moment of unrestrained laughter because it was a time of pure joy for everyone. Plus it was a birthday party which are always fun and bring people together. Everyone was in such high spirits that night, just enjoying each other’s company and laughter was plentiful. It is such a great experience to be able to share positive humor with your closest friends. I think when you are extremely comfortable with the people you are with, laughter flows more freely. People are willing to be themselves, no matter how goofy or silly they are being. The sole purpose of humor and laughter is to bring joy into people’s lives and a smile to someone’s face. There is nothing better than experiencing a moment of unrestrained laughter. These are the moments that you remember with your friends and family and look back on fondly. Laughter is meant to be positive and can brighten someone’s day in so many ways.

My Third Learning Experience

As the semester is coming to a close I think maybe the most important thing I have learned from my freshman year at TCU is how fast time goes. I remember graduating high school, going to Frog Camp, and then eventually moving in to my dorm on the first week of school like it was yesterday. I was filled with excitement and nerves, not knowing anyone and not sure what to expect. I went to my first college class, became involved on campus, and began to form new friendships. Eventually first semester ended and I thought I had become a pro at college life. Second semester began and a whole new set of challenges were faced. New classes, new professors, and new friendships formed, all presenting me with many new excitements as well as many challenges. Now I am facing finals week once again and cannot believe how much I have changed since the day I moved in to TCU. I thought when I was a senior in high school that I was finally “grown up” and knew everything there was to know about the world. I thought I knew how to manage my time, how to eat healthy and exercise, and I had people figured out. After doing bad on my first college test, learning that you actually do have to exercise every day in college, and that not everyone you meet is going to change your life for the better, I knew I needed a serious reality check. I did not know everything there was to know about the world and as much as I wanted to be independent, I still needed a little help from the people most important to me. After spending Christmas Break with my amazing parents and my sister, reflecting on all my successes from first semester and my equally as plentiful failures, I realized that’s life. You will never have it all figured out, that moment just is not going to happen. No matter what stage in life you are at and no matter how many life experiences you have, we are all still human and we all still make mistakes. I returned to second semester with a renewed sense of excitement, now knowing that if I make mistakes, it is okay, as long as I learn from them. Especially during a time in life that is meant for transition, such as freshman year of college, the lessons learned are the most important part. As I finish my second semester of freshman year, I am a completely different person then I was the day I arrived at TCU. I have learned so much about the world but most important I have learned so much about myself. I now know that you have to start studying for a calculus exam prior to the night before the test and that your parents still are really there for you no matter how old you get. As I leave TCU in a couple of days I am now a changed person full of so many great memories and incredible friendships. I will come back to TCU in the fall ready for whatever the world is going to throw at me, knowing that I still have so much to learn, and that is exciting.

Negative Humor

When it pertains to negative humor, there is a large culture of humor used as a weapon rather than to lift people up. Humor’s purpose is to make people laugh and to put a smile on their face yet it is so often used to put someone else down. People try to make others laugh or put an uncomfortable situation at ease by making jokes, but in the end when negative humor is used someone ends up getting hurt. I was recently on a vacation with friends and one of the girls in the group put on a dress before we were headed to dinner. She walked out into the sitting room and another girl on the trip said “Wow can someone say freshman fifteen.” She proceeded to laugh and the girl wearing the dress chuckled as well but you could tell from the look on her face that she was offended. Jokes that pertain to someone’s weight, especially as a freshman college girls who are particularly sensitive to this topic, are never warranted. The girl making the joke was not trying to be blatantly rude or hurtful but she did not realize the impact she was having on the other girl. This was the most eye opening part of this situation for me. The girl making the joke did not even know the impact she was having on the other girl’s emotions. People are sometimes not even aware of the effect of their negative humor. I also realized that though everyone else in the room did not necessarily make the mean joke, they laughed along just to make the situation less uncomfortable. People are hurting others almost as equally as the person who originally made the joke by laughing along. The girl wearing the dress immediately went and changed without saying a word to anyone and we all knew she felt self-conscious about wearing the dress to dinner after the joke that was made. So often in our culture people do not realize the impact their jokes have on other people. They think that if you laugh or say just kidding after saying something blatantly rude that it makes it all okay. I realized in this situation that jokes about someone’s appearance or how they dress is never kind and is extremely hurtful. This applies to many other types of jokes though about people’s ethnicity, religion, intelligence, etc. Whenever a joke is made about the way someone looks or more importantly their emotions and morals, the person receiving the joke always ends up hurt. It is not worth hurting someone else just to get a laugh from the crowd. The point of humor is to make someone’s day better rather than ruin someone’s day. I think in our culture the idea of positive humor needs to be promoted more, encouraging people to use humor for its real purpose, to bring happiness to others.

My First Fit of Unrestrained Laughter

Breaking out in fits of unrestrained laughter for me is most often associated with my friends from home. I went to high school with all of them and have known the majority of them since I was in grade school. My closest friends from home are the people that have shaped my life and watched me grow into the person I am today. When I was home for Easter, the majority of us got together one night and spent hours watching movies and getting caught up on one another’s lives. We began to discuss funny memories from high school and I remember laughing until my stomach hurt. Our senior year of high school we had open campus so we could leave whenever we had free time to go get food or just spend time off campus. My friend Nicole and I left one day during our study hall to go get ice cream before physics class. We drove around for thirty minutes, trying three different restaurants that all ironically had broken ice cream machines. Time was running out before class started and we eventually had to get out of the ice cream line and head back to school so that we would not miss physics. I remember sprinting from the parking lot to the third floor of the building and realizing we had not made it in time. We got to the door of the physics classroom and our teacher had already begun lecturing. We spent at least five minutes arguing outside of the classroom about what we should do and who had to enter the classroom first. Eventually we slowly opened the door, attempting to walk to our seats as quietly as possible. Our whole class erupted into laughter as our teacher said “Where’s my ice cream?” One of our close friends had told the whole class that we were late due to an ice cream run. We were both so embarrassed but joined in the laughter with the class. Reflecting back on this moment almost a year later, we both laughed uncontrollably about it. We had both changed so much since then and could not help but laugh looking back at how nervous we were to walk into class late. All of the rules that we had in high school are completely gone now with the freedoms of college and it was hilarious to think back at how strictly we adhered to the rules of our high school. Being with close friends, especially those from high school that experienced the day to day life you experienced always brings unrestrained laughter for me. We all know each other so well and share many of the same memories. Reflecting back on our high school days and even earlier always brings laughter. The clothes we wore that we thought were stylish that look ridiculous now or the things we did to goof around in high school provides great entertainment. Being with my high school friends always brings unrestrained laughter as well as a smile to my face.

My Fourth Meeting With Angela

In my fourth meeting with Angela we talked a lot about her adjustment to the United States and the transition she experienced from Colombia to the United States when first moving here. She discussed the difficult transition between the cultural norms and the communication barrier she experienced at first. She said when she first moved here she barely knew any English so it was difficult for her to go shopping, go to restaurants, etc. She had a lot of trouble communicating with people which made her avoid going to public places. Now that she knows more English she said it is still difficult sometimes because people cannot understand her due to her accent but she has a much easier time then she did when she first moved to the United States. I had traveled to France in the past and though I knew a small amount of French, I could definitely sympathize with Angela’s situation. It was so frustrating to try and communicate with people because due to the language barrier there was no way to get your point across. I remember being discouraged by this, so I understand what Angela went through when she first moved to the United States. I also asked her about the differences between how people in the United States and Colombia interact with one another. She said they interact pretty similarly except she thinks people in Colombia are more loving and show their affection more easily. She talked about how in Colombia people greet each other by hugging or kissing on the cheek while she has noticed in the United States people shake hands much more. She said people do handshake if they are meeting a new person or if it is in a professional environment but for the most part people in Colombia show their affection much more freely then people do in the United States. We also talked about the cultural norms and values that are promoted by society. She said what she has loved about living in the United States is though she has been given the opportunity to experience a completely different culture and her eyes have been opened to things they may never have been if she had lived in Colombia her whole life, the values and beliefs are the same. In her experience she said she has met many friends and classmates who are similar to her and they share many of the same values. She said it has been an impactful experience to broaden her horizons and gain new experiences while continuing to surround herself with people that share her same value system. Listening to Angela talk about how similar people in the United States are to people in Colombia has been a reminder to me that though we may come from extremely different backgrounds, you can still have a lot in common with someone. It has been really fun for me and Angela to discover how much we have in common while also learning new things about one another’s family, friends and cultures.

My Second Learning Experience

This semester I have learned so much about myself and the path I want to go down in my career. When I originally applied to TCU I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to major in. I knew my strength was my writing skills but other than that I had no tangible future career path. I was so jealous of the students that knew they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. Their paths seemed so clear while I was constantly stressed about figuring my future out. I decided to leave my major undecided and take a wide variety of core classes, hoping that something would peak my interest. My older sister who is a finance and accounting major at TCU suggested that I take an economics course. Though I did not think originally that I was interested in the business field, she said it would fulfill a few credits that I needed and I would at least know for sure that I wanted to cross business off my list of potential majors. Well, quite the opposite ended up happening and I absolutely loved my economics course. I started to consider business but still wanted to find a way to incorporate my writing skills. When I was home for Christmas break my mom suggested I go shadow someone in the marketing field, telling me that marketing gives you the opportunity to experience the business field while also using my strengths.  I ended up shadowing at Boys Town, a nonprofit in Omaha that provides a new life for teenagers that have either been in trouble with the law or need to be removed from their homes for various reasons. After a full day at Boys Town, talking to people that worked in many different facets of the marketing world, I knew what path I wanted to go down. When I got back to TCU I started going through the process of switching my major to business and learning more about the marketing program. I even ended up applying for the BNSF Next Generation Leadership Program, a leadership and service based program within the business school. I learned from this journey that though you might not know your destination right away, figuring out what you want to do is a vital part of the process. I learned so much about myself and my strengths and weaknesses throughout this process. I now know that I want to go into the marketing field and work for a nonprofit after I graduate. Though this is what I think I want to do now, I am excited by the thought that this might change. Before it terrified me that I did not have a set plan but now I love the idea that I can do anything I want. The world offers us so many opportunities especially when it comes to our career, so why not take advantage of them. I am now so happy that I did not know what I wanted to do when I got to college, because figuring it out has been an impactful journey.

My Third Meeting With Angela

Angela and I have started to form a great friendship through our meetings. She loves learning more about the culture in the United States and it is interesting for me to learn about her life back in Colombia as well as the cultural differences she has faced since moving to the United States. During our third meeting I wanted to learn more about her family back home. There are five members of her family, herself, her mom and dad, and she has one brother and one sister. Her sister is 23 and her brother is 21. She is extremely close with both of her siblings, her sister especially who is coming to the United States to visit her in two weeks. When she is in Colombia she lives in the capital city with her brother and her sister which is about a half hour from where her parents live and where she grew up. We talked a lot about family traditions as well. Her dad is an amazing cook and so every Sunday she goes home with her siblings and her dad cooks a big meal for everyone. She loves that the Sunday evening meal brings everyone together even though she and her siblings no longer live with her parents. This is a tradition that is similar for me and Angela because my mom is also an awesome cook. When I was growing up my family had a home cooked meal together every night which we treated as a time to get caught up on what had happened at school for my sister and I and at work for my dad. I always loved having that time to relax with my family and share what had happened in our days. Now whenever I go home for break my family still has home cooked meals together every night. Angela and I also talked about holiday traditions our families have. Her favorite holiday is New Year’s Eve because her entire extended family comes to her house and everyone is responsible for bringing a different type of homemade food and then they have a big dinner to celebrate. She said she loves being together with her family and reflecting about the highs and lows of the previous year and sharing their goals for the New Year together. The part she misses most about Colombia is the quality time spent with her family and friends. I shared with her my favorite holiday tradition which is Christmas Eve dinner with my family. Christmas Eve is the only time that my entire extended family is together so it is a great time to get caught up with my cousins, aunts, and uncles. In my opinion, there is no better way to celebrate a holiday then surrounded by your friends and family. Angela and I communicate with one another well and have found many similarities between the two of us. We are both extremely close to our families and are coping with being away from them since she is from Colombia and I am from Nebraska.  It has been really enjoyable to make a new friend that I have so much in common with.

My First Learning Experience

This semester has been filled with many new experiences and learning inside and outside of the classroom. Though I have learned so much from my intelligent professors and the talented students I am surrounded by, the most important lessons I have learned have not come from a textbook. They have come by experiencing many new things in college and making mistakes. Though these mistakes seemed like the end of the world at the time, what I have learned from them has helped me immeasurably. The most notable lesson I have had to learn is the importance of time management, which is a lesson I definitely learned the hard way. About a month into first semester I had my first applied calculus test. Throughout all of high school math was definitely a weakness of mine so I knew I was going to have to put a lot of work into this class from the beginning. My sorority was having a formal on Thursday night and the test was on Friday morning. I knew if I wanted to go to formal with my friends, I would have to make sure to study for the test beforehand and procrastinating was not an option. But as the week went on I got busy with extracurricular commitments and homework in other classes. I kept putting studying off, thinking I had plenty of time. Finally Thursday arrived and though I had studied a decent amount for the exam, I was not as prepared as I needed to be. I had to make the decision between skipping formal to study and make sure I was prepared for my test or going to formal with all my friends. I made the decision to go to formal and try to wake up early to study for my test that was at eleven. When I woke up in the morning, I was filled with a panicked feeling. I knew I had made the wrong decision and did not have nearly enough time to prepare myself for the test. I did my best to learn as much as I could but when I got to the test, it became clear that I was not prepared. The next class we got the test back and I received a grade that was not up to my standards. I knew in that moment that I had made the mistake of procrastinating and choosing a fun night with my friends rather than studying, a mistake that would take me awhile to recover from. Though my grade is where I want it to be now, I spent the next couple of weeks putting all of my free time into studying for calculus, missing a lot of fun times with my friends which was ironic since I was in this position because I put off studying for the original test to spend time with my friends. I learned through this experience that college is all about finding balance. Though it is important to form relationships with new people and have fun with your friends, school is the most important part of college. These fun times should be saved for times when you have already studied and made sure you have prepared yourself for all your classes. It is hard not to procrastinate and to put school first all the time, but in the long run this is the best decision. Though I had to learn this lesson the hard way, I have realized the importance of finding balance in college.

My Second Meeting With Angela

I was excited as my second meeting with Angela approached. From our first meeting I had learned a lot about her culture and her life in Colombia. We did not have anywhere near as large of a language barrier as I thought we were going to have so I was excited to meet with her again and learn more about her life in Colombia compared to her experiences in the United States. At our second meeting I wanted to learn more about her everyday life in Colombia and the cultural differences she had experienced since living in the United States. Angela said that the main difference she had experienced between Colombia and the United States was the organizational system of the United States. We had discussed this a little bit during our first meeting but she talked a lot more about the government set up in Colombia. She said the government does not impose a lot of restrictions on the people so many systems are unorganized especially the traffic systems. She said the roads themselves are much nicer in the United States and traffic is terrible in Colombia. She said it can sometimes take hours to get from place to place because the traffic jams are so bad. She also did say a major difference is the freshness of the food. She said fast food is not prevalent in Colombia and the food is much more traditional. They do not have as large of a variety of food options as we do in the United States. Angela said clothing wise people dress similar and there are many stores that she shops at both in Colombia and the United States. She also said one major difference is Colombia experiences one constant weather type which is similar to spring in Texas while in Texas she has experienced every season. She said she was not prepared for the extreme weather changes in the United States, especially snow and freezing temperatures. In our first meeting we had talked a bit about her family back home and she discussed the challenge of being away from them more in our second meeting. She said the hardest part about being in the United States is being away from her family and friends and not being able to eat the traditional foods with her family in Colombia. She did say that she really loves her experience living in the United States. Her favorite part about the United States is how organized everything is and the opportunities that are present here. She said many of her friends come to learn English and study in the United States in hopes of eventually getting a job here. People are better off in the United States then they are in Colombia financially.  The United States presents many opportunities for jobs and a better life than most people could have in Colombia. So far I have learned a lot from my meetings with Angela. She has a pretty good grasp of the English language and we do not have trouble communicating, though we do teach each other a lot about cultural aspects of the United States and Colombia. I have had a really great experience so far and cannot wait to learn more about her life!

 

My First Meeting with Angela

As I prepared for my first meeting with my conversation partner Angela, I could not help the overwhelming anxiety and nervousness that I felt. I had taken four years of French in high school but that was the closest I had come to experiencing a different language. I did not have first-hand experience talking to someone whose first language was not English and I did not know a word of Spanish, which was Angela’s first language. I could tell through our emails that Angela knew English pretty well but that there would definitely be a small language barrier between us. I walked into the cafeteria and took a deep breath, hoping for the best. My fears were confirmed when Angela called my cell phone asking me where exactly I was sitting in the cafeteria. We had our first moment of disconnect when I tried to explain to her that I was sitting next to the soda machine and she responded that she was not sure what the soda machine was. I made my way through the crowds of people and eventually found her, both of us apologetic for our lack of communication. Once we sat down and began our first conversation though, my anxiety was completely washed away. We started by sharing our backgrounds with one another and as Angela told me about her life, her family back home, and her experience in the United States so far, I realized that her English was actually quite good. Angela is from Colombia and is one year away from graduating from university there so she came to the United States to learn English for a year, hoping that being bilingual will be a skill that will help her get a job once she graduates. She is an extremely driven student who wants to make sure she is successful as possible and can put her degree to good use once she enters the work force in Colombia. She had a small foundation of English since her family had travelled to New York a few times during her childhood, but she said she still faced difficulty in learning the English language in her intensive program here at TCU. Since I did have experience trying to learn a new language, from my French in high school, we began to share stories of the trials and tribulations that go along with learning a new language. It is widely acknowledged that English is the most difficult language to learn so I definitely sympathized with her situation. She said that for her the hardest part is understanding what someone is saying to her in English and then formulating a response that is grammatically correct. When she sees a sentence written down or reads from a novel, she has much more time to think about what the sentence actually means, rather than in the fast pace of day to day conversation. We also discussed the cultural differences she has experienced in her time in the United States. She said for the most part people are similar to her friends in Colombia and American are polite and well-mannered. She did mention that she thinks this is due to the nature of Texans, and she did not have the same experience in her time in New York. She also said she missed he traditional food that her family makes in Colombia, though she does try to cook and share some of her recipes with her friends here in the United States. Meeting Angela for the first time was much difference then I expected it to be. Though we grew up with different cultures and speaking different languages, we shared many similar experiences. It was interesting to hear about her life in Colombia and what she has observed during her time in the United States and I cannot wait to learn more about her experiences throughout this semester!

What is Humor?

For my second blog post questions pertaining to humor and laughter were explored. I interviewed three freshmen students, April, Adam, and Alison to gain their perspective on these questions. Examples of the questions asked are:
What is humor?
What is laughter?
Why do people laugh?
What makes people laugh?
What is the difference between positive and negative humor?
How much of the humor that you are exposed to is negative?

Video 1: April

 

Video 2: Adam 

 

 

Video 3: Allison 



What is Literature and Civilization?

My first blog post of my Literature and Civilization Blog explores three questions that are at the core of this course. These three questions are:
What is literature?
What is civilization?
What should be studied in a class entitled Literature and Civilization?
I interviewed three students in the Honors College at TCU, Abby, Rosemary, and Sara, to see what their responses were to these questions.

Video 1: Abby

 

Video 2: Rosemary

Video 3: Sara