Hello, Art History!

So here I am again, writing a blog post when I should be doing homework (editing a research paper on the Old English poem The Ruin, in this case). Ha ha... Oh well.

I've had this plan for a while that I should graduate a semester early, just because I can. Why not get out of the undergrad world three months early, if it's doable? And, up until today, that was my main plan. It meant that I had a very tight schedule planned, with very busy and challenging semesters ahead (each with 15-17 credit hours and no room for fun electives). Yesterday, that began to change.

Illumination from a Medieval
manuscript of the Song of Songs

I was planning to take a graduate-level course, "Old English," this coming Fall and then its companion course, "Beowulf," the following Spring, but my university decided to change their schedule for these two courses and removed them from their regular rotation. So, I thought I'd do an independent reading version of at least Old English this Fall, but the professor said, "Naw, you don't need to; it should be offered at least by the Fall of 2013," [which is when I planned to graduate]. But then I might not be able to take Beowulf if they push it back a whole year. So, I started thinking, maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all to stick around for that eighth semester... I definitely would not have so much stress in cramming my semesters and hoping to fit all of the right classes.

And then I noticed a poster about Art History minors today in the fine arts building on campus. I greatly enjoy studying art and its history, and it happens to be extremely relevant to the field of Medieval Studies. I have already taken two courses in Art History, am signed up for another this Fall, and plan to take one next Spring. I checked the requirements; I'd only have to take one more Art History class to add it as a minor. Would that be another reason, perhaps, to stay for one more semester?

Yes.

So I added an Art History minor. Just got the email from the Registrar, informing me that the change is now official. I'm pretty excited about it.

(And, you've got a few days left to vote in the poll for what you want me to write my next blog post about! Go vote! ...Then look for the resulting requested post by the end of the month!)