Final Thoughts :-)

Reflecting on my spring semester, I had the most enjoyable time in Folk and Fairy Tales than my other courses. It was nice to read fiction for a change of pace. After reading all these tales and analyzing them, I feel more confident in my critical reading and writing skills. It is easy to doubt yourself as a student (unfortunately), but my positive time in this course made all the difference. I also found stories I want to share with the little ones in my life and my future children. Beauty and the Beast and Tselane and the Marimo have stood out to me this semester as two stories I cannot forget and want my future children to hear. I am a sucker for true love and beauty being skin deep themed stories, and with Tselane, I love how her mother was the one to rescue her. I want my future children to know that their mother will always save them in their time of need just as Tselane’s mother did. I also could not get enough of Oscar Wilde’s stories. I did not key in on the religious aspects, but the overall messages of kindness, gratitude, and the importance of giving. The Selfish Giant made me happy and sad at the same time. It made me smile when he opened his garden for the children to play in, but I was sad when he died. But then again, he got to live in total paradise with Jesus so I guess it all worked out for the giant!

I admit, I did not always prepare the best I could for class. I wish I dedicated more time to the stories to really digest them. I truthfully enjoyed the material and assignments though. I never saw them as a chore. In fact, it was refreshing to sit down and read stories and write personal blogs after hours of political philosophy research and taking notes on ethics (so tedious!).

Overall, I will not forget my time in this class and will hang on to the books forever! There are too many good stories in them to ever get rid of these books.