Summer courses at Hillsdale College are like intense physical fitness for the brain. If those brain muscles are a little flabby, don’t fret: One dose of upper-level English will tighten up all those loose trains-of-thought in no time.
Covering a semester’s worth of material in one three-week session is not for the faint of heart, but if you are dedicated to the perfection of your education, then take a summer course. Like the stages a body goes through to get back into shape, a student goes through similar phases during summer classes.
Phase one: the first day. Just like when you first make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, on the first day of classes you are fired up and ready to learn. You show up bright-eyed and excited to hear what the professor is going to say. But how long does a New Year’s resolution last? As one could guess, this is the shortest phase of summer classes.
Phase two: the “second thoughts” phase. This phase usually starts in the first class, some time between the handing out of the syllabus and the assignment of the first homework. Compare this phase to actually making it to the gym for the first time that year, and looking around only to realize you are in uncharted waters. There are weight machines with so many knobs, handles, and moving parts they could be spaceships, and many skinny women on ellipticals running at a pace that would challenge any Olympian.
Then you see the man lifting a weight twice your size, face as red as a cherry and looking like he might need some serious medical attention soon — or at least someone to help him put his arms fully down to his sides. Mostly, phase two of summer classes could be summed up in one phrase: “What am I doing here?”
After a couple of vent sessions to your friends, a dramatic call to your parents, and a good cry-session later, you are ready to enter phase three of summer classes: the realization stage. You take a second look at your homework assignment. At first, reading an 800-page book in three days feels impossible with the judgmental eyes of those stick-thin ellipticalists staring at you. But once you are back home, surrounded by the comfort of Oreos and peanut butter, you realize that you can do this. Though you may not be as strong as Mr. Cherry or as fast as Ms. Twiglet, you are still there to learn and improve yourself, just like them. So they can just stand back and watch you work.
You are now entering stage four: the sweat stage. Now that you have given yourself the pep-talk of your life, you are ready to work. Step by step, you run a mile farther; page by page, you finish that book. Does it hurt? Yes. The words on the page burn your eyes as you read late into the night, your head spinning from the physical taxation of poetic figurative language and symbolism. But you push on. Eat, Sleep, Study. You basically breathe summer school.
Then you discover something odd. Despite burning eyes and a spinning head, you are not only successfully participating in summer classes, but you actually enjoy them. This is stage five: the blissful stage. After regularly using your brain muscles, you automatically begin to crave those jogs through the metaphorical language of poems. It becomes a daily ritual, a normal part of your schedule, without which you feel out of balance, unproductive, and frankly, fat. The readings for class don’t exhaust you anymore. Instead, they excite and enlighten you, making it easy to read late into the night and come back the next day fit and ready to learn.
Next thing you know, phase six is upon you: the home stretch. It is the race you have prepared for all summer, the original motivation for that stupid New Year’s resolution. But instead of having a full week to cram with last-minute studying, you have one night.
But don’t stress. You have trained diligently for the past three week. All that figurative language and symbolism has become second nature to you. You eat figurative language for breakfast. Now it is time to ace that final, and run the championship lap to the relaxation of summer without school.
So if you are considering taking summer classes here at Hillsdale, here is my advice: Hours upon hours of reading may test your endurance, and stretch your brain in ways it never has before, but if you believe you can endure the ordeal, summer classes will be the most rewarding and enlightening “race” you can complete at Hillsdale College.