It’s All About Perspective

I know I’ve mentioned the fact that I started my undergraduate studies as a computer science major (despite knowing little about computer science) at least once before, which would then lead into a rant of sorts about how much I suffered in that program. For the risk of sounding repetitive, I’m going to mention it again, but exclude the ranting part as I’ve spent some time considering what brought me to that decision in the first place. I think Christian Madsbjerg, in their book Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, helps me set the stage when they say, “If we want to remain useful—and employed—we should cede territory to the algorithms all around us—even become subservient to them”. Now naturally, Madsbjerg is joking here, but in every joke, there is some level of truth. In my senior year of high school, I built my first computer and read a book about someone who learned python to solve a mystery. While those events don’t necessarily scream “programming prodigy”, they started to lift the veil on the secrets of technology. I learned what the various parts of a computer do and learned about the ways in which programming could be used for personal and creative pursuits, which struck me deeply. I felt that with my level of interest and Madsbjerg’s notion of employability, computer science was the right path for me.

I made two attempts to earn a degree in computer science: one year at the University of South Carolina and another, after taking some time off, at the College of Charleston. In that time, I came out with nothing, but the ability to read and write java code with some proficiency, a strong skill in mathematical and logic-based thinking, and the desire to pursue an English degree, all while working as a content editor for an account company, which sharpened my skills in video editing and proofreading. What a waste of time.

Naturally, I’m joking by framing this as I used to, but with actual skills I acquired along the way, instead of an unreasonable rant about the dehumanization caused by STEM programs and how boring editing accounting videos is. This new perspective reminds me from the introduction of Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought, which talks about the way in which we as humans learn and the values we take from that learning experience. When talking about “objects of desire” (which in my case was getting a computer science degree), Hitz describes that, “they pull us along in a particular direction, opening up possibilities to us that we did not expect or choose”. Who knew programming would bring me to English? I always kept it as a possibility, even adding it as a second major in my junior year at the College of Charleston, but it was never really a career path for me at the time. Until it was.

Taking these lessons, I committed myself exclusively to the English major in my senior year at the College of Charleston and, in true English fashion, signed up for a Jane Austen text and film class, hoping to expand my literary lexicon. Having never been exposed to Jane Austen, outside of pop culture references, and an avid film enjoyer, I was more than ready to dive into her narrative world and all it had to offer. Our first project was a comparative analysis between the novel and film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. I had taken a film class at the University of South Carolina in my sophomore year, so I felt I was more than prepared to tackle this project. When I began, my main priority was to find a scene that existed in both pieces and compare them in a focused, well-rounded essay. I chose a goodbye scene between the main character and her love interest that occurs relatively early in the narrative, as they were different enough to talk about over a few pages.

The challenge with this project was that the scene in the book is pretty much glossed over, only giving me about two or three lines of text to work with. The movie, which had more dialogue, was also brief with the scene only lasting about 40 or so seconds. For some, that might be a daunting task, but for English majors, that’s where we thrive. The ability to extract large amount of data from a seemingly insignificant source is a skill that we practice constantly in the English field. Writing is about nuance and hidden meaning. During the writing process, I had to take the time and linger on each word in the novel and each from in the film in order to decipher what the author and director were trying to communicate to me. Having a grasp on that, I then transitioned to synthesizing the works in order to see the bigger picture. The result was an essay that engaged those often-cited critical thinking skills through a logic-based approach, which provided a foundation for building connections of abstractions found in differing modes of communication.

I’m now in the final semester of my English degree, with the ever-lingering thought of what comes next. In order to figure that out, I think it’s important to reflect on what came first. As Laurie Grobman and E. Michele Ramsey point out, in their chapter on “The Enduring Value of the Humanities”, “Understanding what we pursue and why we pursue it is key to understanding the importance of the humanities”. The value of anything doesn’t just come at the end but comes in bits and pieces along the way. My job now is to compile those bits and pieces into a story to help me understand what I’ve learned and how I can take that moving forward.

One Response to It’s All About Perspective

  1. Prof VZ March 14, 2023 at 2:04 pm #

    You have a great foundation here for this key part of your portfolio. I love the focus on the adaptation course, and you weave in relevant readings really well. At the start, I understand how you’re sort of picking up the thread of your reflections in previous posts, but try to frame this as more of a stand-alone statement, as it will function in some ways as the expanded introduction to your portfolio. Over the course of the semester, you’ve wrestled with various ways to frame your journey from a STEM field to the English major, so now I think you are well positioned to polish that approach. In this post, you sort of compartmentalize your cynicism about your time in Computer Science, and work on framing the broader experience as one with some value–some skills gained that others might look at and be intrigued by. You could do a bit more to frame this momentous choice as both a sort of tempered cynicism (you’ve gained some insight, perhaps, into what your work in CS afforded you in terms of skills or knowledge) but also as a more positive movement to something else–something that struck you about the English major. In your academic work inventory post, you suggest that there was something in your English coursework that reminded you or made available your own humanity in some ways. I’d love for you to be able to capture that moment here in more concrete ways. That’s a key part of the “values” conversation about your work in English. As for the skills piece, I like how you use your Austen course, but you might drill down a bit more. Why did you choose this goodbye scene? A departure that certainly is charged with the future coming-together of this couple? What are some of the things you noticed and analyzed? You might bring this academic exploration to life a bit more, and to note how our lives are full of adaptations where we switch contexts, face new audiences, work in different media, etc. In that way, your work on this scene serves as a broader indication of a certain facility you have with this kind of gear-switching. I think you could press on that a bit more.

    You have a few really keen insights in your academic work inventory post. You might go back and recover a few of the clearest and most successful moments from there and work it into this essay (this essay is, in a way, a sort of cumulative capstone, capturing the all the reflective work you’ve done across the semester).

    Finally, some brief reference to the range of your relevant work in English–looking to cultural productivity beyond books in your rap project, which also focused on interrogating and exploring ideas of masculinity, or in your Shakespeare project, which focused on searching intently for what might be less obvious.

    Finally, in your conclusion, you might try out a clearer future-projection move. Right now, you sort of cast us into the future, but it seems a sort of open question. The future hasn’t happened yet, so you can’t be dishonest here. Try casting some more specific ideas about how the skills and values you’ve gained might work for you in the next few years. Talk about some possible pathways.

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