Author: Abigail Axton

I stand on the wobbly dock, eyes trained on the water attempting to memorize every detail of its movement and being in order to write about it later. I note the rippling effect the wind creates on the smooth surface, and the once bright blue color fading to black as the sun sets behind me. As I am writing this all down I can not help but feel like this is too obvious, the water would be an obvious focal point for anyone in this spot, on this dock. I start to yearn to find a lesser known beauty, something looked over yet still breathtaking. For the first time since I arrived I tear my gaze away from the water and start taking in the things I had walked right past in my laser focused state of getting to the water.
I notice the rocks lying in wait underneath the shoreline, how the water turns transparent it seems just to put these rocks on display. Each one a slightly different color and shape, yet if you squint they all become one with each other dormant under the waves like an unlikely foundation. I notice the grass, the smell and appearance of it being freshly mowed, yet sections left to grow, allowed to blow in the breeze looking softer than wool. This grass is supporting the other onlookers I see before me, holding their blankets and baskets and bodies, yet all they can seem to focus on is the same water which dominated my gaze just shortly before.
But the thing that captured me like no other, was the tree domineering at the edge of the shore just off the dock, peering over the area as if it owned everything, the water, the rocks, the grass, even the people inhabiting it. It stood alone while the other trees grouped together, from this angle it looks taller than the rest although that may just be perspective’s little mind tricks. The sun sets directly behind it, its light seeping through the cracks between branches like water running through your palms, fast and flowing while simultaneously stagnant and slow. The branches are strong and opaque at the heart of the tree but as your eyes travel outwards the branches become smaller and fewer, translucence takes control and gives permission to the light to make its journey through.
This tree holds some sort of importance that I can not put my finger on, it holds itself like it knows something we do not. I wonder why the water is held much more divinely than the tree, why the water attracts visitors and not the tree. Is this what the tree wants? Is it intentional? Are we fools to think the water is the leader? Are we fools to think the tree is? Or are we fools to even think there is a leader to begin with? Maybe there is no larger meaning, maybe it is just some rocks, grass, water, and a tree.

So far in this course I have learned a lot about my computer and its connection to the humanities that has helped me become more comfortable with my own computer and other technology as well. Before this class I found myself not thinking about how my computer worked, or how what I am doing on my computer comes to be, but after our conversation about Broad Band I have been thinking more about my computer itself and the inner workings going on when I use it. Specifically thinking about the part in Broad Band where it talked about the programs and the programs creating programs themselves, I find myself remembering this a lot when I am creating our daily journals and even when running other programs like Google Docs, Brightspace, Gmail etc. I have used this new knowledge and confidence to be more open to using all the potential of my computer and exploring what I can do to personalize my experience with it.

A concept in this class that has opened my eyes to more things outside the class has been the idea of paying more attention to the process of creating a work of literature instead of just the words written. I have found myself relating this a lot to my African American literature class, and how back when the works we look at were being published there had to be prefaces written by white people before the Black author’s work could be published. I related this to the conversation of looking at the process as well as the work itself because if one were to just read the preface and then the work they could believe that the author of the preface held a higher educational or professional ranking than the author of the work in question, but when you look at the context behind the written work you can uncover the fact that the only reason the preface was written was because of racist beliefs. I was happy I had the thought from our conversation about Thoreau and his writing to search and think more about the behind the scenes working of the reading in my other class so I was aware of the historical circumstances.

I have found that there has been a lot of crossover between this class and my women and gender studies class as well, especially with the book Broad Band and the fact that women had a huge hand in creating the modern day computer and the programming it uses, but it is still viewed as a man’s sphere and the women were uncreditted for the work they did. In my women’s class we also talk about how historically women have been underestimated and uncredited for the work they did that has impacted us up through today. Overall, this class has been very beneficial in teaching me how to utilize my computer, as well as utilize others classes to a full extent with confidence in what I am doing.