Classes

A comprehensive list of all the courses I took throughout my college career (2009-2013):

• Microeconomics
• Cohort Leadership
• Conversations of the West: Antiquity & the Renaissance (literature)
• Calculus II
• Commerce & Culture (writing)
• Financial Accounting
• Statistics
• Business & Its Publics
• World Cultures: Russia since 1917 (history)
• Advanced Japanese I
• Information Technology
• Foundations of Financial Markets
• Managerial Accounting
• Entertainment & Media Industries
• Film Distribution & Finance
• Elementary Russian I
• 20th Century Theatremakers (drama)
• Organizational Communication
• Introduction to Marketing
• Beginner Korean III (Intermediate Korean I)
• Business Law
• Operations (business)
• Economics of Global Business
• Intermediate Chinese II
• Entertainment Accounting
• Consumer Behavior
• International Studies: Asia (Singapore) (business)
• TV Management
• TV Nation: Inside & Outside the Box
• Advanced Chinese I
• Marketing Research
• Legal Aspects of the Entertainment Business
• Professional Responsibility & Leadership (ethics)
• Producing for TV
• Intermediate Korean II
• Management & Organizational Analysis
• Private Voice Lessons
• Globalization & the Entertainment Industry
• Technology & its Impact on Entertainment

The ones in bold are the courses I really enjoyed attending and didn't consider a chore. I realized that they all fall under liberal arts pursuits: 6 language courses, 1 ethics, 1 writing, 1 history, and 1 literature. 

I wonder, would I have not looked upon my past 4 years with disdain if I had gone to a liberal arts school? But then again, I know myself. The reason I enjoyed these classes so fondly is most likely because contrasted against my dull business classes, these liberal arts classes really allowed me to exercise the more interesting side of my brain, the side of my brain I'm rarely allowed to access in the money-driven, practical, low-risk environment that my parents and business school have created for me. Even though I was taking other classes that interested me and were "practical" (i.e. my entertainment classes), they still felt like necessities because I had to be actively pursuing a career. 

Thus, having these "irrelevant" classes peppered into my schedule every semester allowed me to stay sane. But to be honest, I probably wouldn't enjoy myself all too much if I had to write all those essays and theses every semester that the liberal arts student is regularly bombarded with.

Plus, pepper tastes terrible by itself.

Classes I still want to take:

-James Joyce class, specifically on Ulysses, because I really could never get through that book and properly enjoy it myself if I didn't have a professional guide me through it, and it's just sitting on my shelf, still brand new. My ideal syllabus: chapter deadlines, regular discussions, but no essays

-Philosophy class. The reason I enjoyed my ethics class is because it's so interesting discussing different ideas of the world and everyone sharing their own viewpoints. I'm always interested in how others think because it really helps me understand, not anything in particular, just understand. My ideal syllabus: lectures; discussions; journal entries with no guidelines, just to write, in lieu of essays. I actually bought a philosophy book today because it was on sale at Barnes & Noble and the closest thing I could get to learning about it.

-Infinite Jest class. Does this exist anywhere? I've read maybe the first 80 pages or so on my own (with the help of the David Foster Wallace dictionary) and really appreciate Wallace's usage of words, but like Ulysses, I don't feel like I'm properly appreciating the novel as a whole. My copy is literally sitting right next to an untouched Ulysses. My ideal syllabus: see James Joyce class

-More language classes, of course. If I could only choose one thing on this list to take, it would most definitely be more language classes.