In the course HIST 222: History from 1877 – Modern times, we learned about all of the social, cultural, and political changes that came about in the United States from 1877 to around the seventies. We did not do much work besides go to lectures, take quizzes, and the occasional homework assignment, but I absolutely loved this class. Every day, Mr. Meadows would come in and have me absolutely engrossed in his lessons, whether it was just about the politics in the Midwest in 1900 or if it was a more interesting topic such as the civil rights movement. One of our only assignments which I feel is appropriate to talk about is a paper in which we had to discuss multiple themes which appear in the novel “Diary of an Ex-Colored Man” by James Weldon Johnson. This is a popular “race novel” and we talked about an array of topics such as how Diary of an ECM was like other race novels at the time it was written and how it is not, how the author uses certain views to shape his writing, and how the story being told as a narrative from an unknown man put Diary of an ECM in a category all its own. This was an interesting paper to write, as I have never had to think so critically about a novel, but I felt as though it helped me in many ways that I felt as though I could easily talk for hours of the novel and all of its different themes and topics. This class was again, a favorite of mine second semester and I am so glad I was able to take it.