HONS 495: Love, Sex and Friendship

Relationships fill our entire lives. When I saw that there was a class that examined different relationships and the philosophy behind them, all with the purpose of trying to learn about relationships so that we can better participants in them, I couldn’t sign up fast enough. This class was writing intensive which proved difficult at times because I had to find a way to convey what I understood to other people in a non-confusing way, which is hard for me to do with the topic of philosophy. I found it beneficial that my teacher allowed rewrites after two of our papers because it put the pressure that there was a standard that I had to meet, but I didn’t feel defined by the standard academically. It allowed me to learn and improve without necessarily the pressure a grade holds. Except for our final paper, since there was no rewrite on or final, I knew that whatever I would write would have to be the best of the best of the semester and I felt that it was. It was somewhat difficult because it involved taking elements of research and crafting a wedding toast filled with advice on how to have a long-lasting marriage. Although it was difficult, it challenged and improved my ability to take philosophical content and turn it into something that people can understand without realizing what they are actually being taught. This professor was the same professor that I had for CTZN 110. In CTZN 110, I religiously took reading notes which helped the long-lasting learning of the content. In this class, I failed to do that, and I wish I hadn’t slacked off on that because looking back, I would love for the content to be more on the forefront of my mind instead of somewhat forgotten. In future classes, I am not going to overlook the importance of reading notes and how influential they can be for retaining information beyond the time period of the course.

Below is a wedding toast that I wrote for my final exam in May 2019 for the class “Love, Sex, and Friendship”. The purpose of the assignment was to incorporate research and the content of the class to create a toast that would provide the couple with advice on how to have a long-lasting marriage.