Chesney Randi

For those who don't know me, my name is Chesney, and I am excited to get to know all of you during the spring semester. I am an English Major, hence why I am taking this class. I had no expectations to major in English until I was enrolled in my FYS, Food for Thought. The class was led by Paul Graham another professor in the English department. He taught me many things like how important writing is and how many windows of opportunity their are by becoming and English major. Sometimes I regret becoming an English major because I am not as strong a writer as other students. I also find myself struggling when I am trying to find out a professor's writing style and what they expect the students to deliver right off the bat. so, with those being only minor issues, I have only had a bad experience with one English professor. At the end of taking that class and truly given it my all, I couldn't say it was very horrible because I did learn a lot.

In this class however, I expect to learn a lot. I want to be able to explore the feelings and conclusions that occur after the assigned readings during class time. I have been learning about Shakespeare and mainly English/British lit for three semesters now and I think it is time for a change. I picked this class because the topic of discussion covers topics that go beyond an average class taken within the English major. I have really never read a lot of African American Literature therefore, I am excited to expand on this particular experience.

Since I have never explored African American Literature, I believe it has to do with where I have grown up. I grew up in a small town known as Garden City, Long Island. It is not diverse at all and just about everyone is Irish or Itailian and Catholic as well. I was one of twelve kids in my grade to be brought up Protestant and that was about as diverse as it got for me until I went to St. Lawrence. The diversity that St. Lawrence offers is what made this school so appealing to me. Since I have been going to this school for three years, my social ladescape that surrounds me here has prepared me for other social situations that I might incounter in the future. Overall all, what I have learn thus far is that their are no identity makers that are important to me. As I begin to learn how to adapt to different social situations at St. Lawrence and else where, I learn that their is nothing that is physically significant that should seperate the human race. Now, that doesn't mean I don't have a problem talking about situations like segregation that have done so in the past, but I only hope to learn more from our past with an open mind and learn to better the social situations that we shall encounter in the future.