“Julie does well with deadlines,” said my friend, who is a director I’ve worked with in the past.
I smirk; his statement is not quite accurate. He must have read my mind, because he amends, “Well, really, she doesn’t do well without deadlines.”
Now, this is true. It’s one of the main reasons I wanted to do the Drisha Arts Fellowship. The artists get together once a week to learn together and then workshop each others’ pieces. Learning Biblical Hebrew and parshanut (classical commentary on the Torah) sounded interesting and important, but it was the weekly artists’ salons that really excited and inspired me to apply. (Actually, who am I kidding? I had no idea what “parshanut” was.)
After my first full week at Drisha, I have learned:
1. I need to replace my broken glasses.
2. Being in an “easy A” class is really boring. I switched to Biblical Hebrew 2, where I have to actually pay attention.
3. I need to learn the order of the Hebrew alphabet in order to look things up in the dictionary.
4. Don’t rush translation! Don’t just guess! Be thorough. This isn’t a race, or Hungarian (where I try to connect as many dots as possible without actually knowing all the words).
5. It’s very hard not to check my BlackBerry. My job beckons….
6. …On the other hand, I went through a lot of trouble to make my work schedule insane for this. So I’m going to go to class, and I’m going to like it. And I do. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.
I always describe myself as someone who doesn’t do well in a classroom setting. I’ve raced pennies down my desk. I’ve doodled hundreds of faces and figures across hundreds of notebook pages, worksheets, handouts. I’m “street-smart”, not “book-smart”.
So it’s weird to be back in school. It’s weird to like it. When I applied to the fellowship, the classes were this fuzzy, oh-that’s-nice, theoretically great idea. I came for the workshop setting, for a cohort of artists and peers. But perhaps I do well in a classroom setting, after all.
I do still doodle a lot, though.
I read somewhere recently that doodling actually helps you learn. And I mean, I may not have slacked off as much as you (hehe), but I also doodled a ton and I still came out an educated dork. So I think it might be true. If I’m not doodling, I get bored and rebellious and don’t want to listen!
Yeah, I don’t know how I could manage without doodling.
My science teacher sat down to tutor me before a test in high school once. I opened up my notebook to my notes, and there was a moment of stunned silence as he looked down at them — organized, meticulous notes, surrounded by a chaotic whirlwind of guitars, wannabe-Vasarely imitations, and probably a few “I <3 Jon Stewart" doodles.
Nice.
[...] “Don’t rush translation! Don’t just guess! Be thorough.” It’s funny; while my instinct is still rush and to guess, this dynamic is now also something [...]