I'll graduate this year with a B.Arts. with a major in Ancient History, and maybe a minor in Japanese studies. My capstone essay earned a distinction, but I lost marks for being a day late in my submission. Bugger!
That's the formal description for my studies, but I usually describe my studies as a 'blackmarket' degree, in that I've followed no formal program, but made as many intellectual journeys as I could across Asia, exploring side roads as I went. In that journey, I accumulated more credit points than I need to graduate, simply because there was always some new discovery to be investigated. I was fortunate in being to use the resources of two universities in my explorations.
I faced a difficult decision at the beginning of this journey, I could see that the big story of the nineteenth century was the disintegration of east Asian order, and in the twentieth C. the re-organisation of China, and in the twentyfirst C. the ascendancy of Asia, but I was also very curious about the origins of Christianity and the role of 'shared' knowledge in the development of both Judaism and Christianity. I settled for Asia, but found to my surprise that my intellectual journey would also enlighten me as to the pagan origins of both Judaism and Christianity.
My only regret, is that I wasted 40 years of my life thinking that the YHWH/Jesus combo God was going to save the world. How could I have succumbedr to believing something so weird? (grin)
Right now, I'm taking two topics essentially outside my field of study, but the university thinks I (OK, all students) need something they call a 'people' unit and a 'planet' unit. Searching through the lists of topics, I found a study unit under each label that helps me. So this semester, "Critical thinking" and next semester, "Why do people believe weird things" - so here's hoping I do not become too introspective.
