Final Reflection

I chose varied pieces of work from different years, mediums, and parts of the semester in an effort to portray a varied view of my time at Skidmore in the Classics department. I think that all of these works, imperfections and all, demonstrate my growth as a student and my changing views as a person. During my time in the Skidmore Classics department, I was able to learn about subjects that I’m interested in and learn that the field as a whole is a combination of ways of thinking and investigating that I will remember forever. Because of opportunities from the Classics department, I was even able to visit Greece, which is where I took these photos. Even though Classics is not what I want to pursue in the future, I leave Skidmore with knowledge and ways of thinking that have changed me and will help me accomplish my goals. 

I tried to arrange my items in a way that was both clear to understand and that wasn’t too repetitive. I placed the pieces that I was most proud about at the beginning and at the end. The other pieces I have various levels of satisfaction about are interspersed in between. My essay on classical reception, for example, comes second. I am the most unhappy with this piece out of all the pieces that I included in my portfolio, and this is reflected in both my grade on the paper and in my own reflection. I thought that it was important to put this piece second because it shows the range of my feelings about my work. In this way, I hope I was able to be transparent about the better works I have and the ones that are worse. After that, I wanted to veer away from papers while still having the assignments be ones that were still important to my grade in the class. I chose my speech on Augustus because of this. In showing my Augustus speech, which I believe to be one of the poorer speeches I did at my time in the Skidmore Classics department, I also wanted to show a better speech I did, which was one of the reasonings behind adding my epithet project.  

I switched back to papers after my Augustus speech. In my portfolio, I wanted to include papers that were not heavy, longer papers that are due at the end of the semester as a final project. Instead, I included two papers from Classical World because they were shorter assignments that did not have the same large effect on my grade that papers like my classical reception paper had. I feel that smaller assignments like these do not get the recognition they deserve. Although the larger assignments have more weight, these smaller assignments were just as important in shaping my time as a Classics major. Though I touched on this in my reflections for these shorter papers, it still bears relevance here.  

My reasoning for including the midterm from Body and Soul in Ancient Greece is the same reason I included speeches and short assignments: variety. I ended with my epithet project because it felt like a true culmination of the things I worked for during my Classics degree. I started my Classics career with Elementary Greek, and it all came together in my first 300-level Greek language course on Homer. I was able to synthesize all of my learning in this presentation, and I wanted this to be the final piece in my portfolio.  

I originally chose Classics because I enjoyed my elementary Greek class. Before I took that class, the only other language class I had taken was Spanish in high school, so the complexity of Greek took me by surprise. Despite its complexity, it became my favorite class that semester, and I took more Classics classes because of that introductory course. After I began taking more classes in Classics, I began to understand that it coincided with so many of my other interests. I was interested in learning about history and archaeology, and I knew that I already enjoyed learning Greek. Taking classes about culture at different times was fascinating to me, and it felt like I had more insight because of the other facets that comprise Classics.