Nerd Code

I’m an English major.  This means on some level, I'm a nerd.

But there are some nerdy things that even I (usually) know better than to do.  Like showing up to a meeting with your advisor about your Kafka and Gnosticism thesis…wearing a Kafka t-shirt.  Unfortunately, I was guilty of this little geek faux-pas this morning, and I still haven’t decided whether or not it was a good thing that he never commented on the t-shirt, thus never giving me a chance to explain my actual reason for wearing it, which is infinitely less nerdy: a Kafka presentation for a class that I’m not even in. 

So maybe I am in English nerd overdrive today, but it is strange how much my thesis has been creeping into different areas of my life these days.  For one thing, I’m pretty much in a perpetual state of either working on it or knowing I should be working on it (usually the second one), but it has been on the brain elsewhere as well.  I am a supplemental instructor for a freshman theology class, and what are we learning about?  Gnosticism.  Did you know that the president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is called the “eminent archon,” which comes from the Gnostic term for ruler of a cosmic sphere?  I did. 

 

Would I ever say no to a former professor who asked if I could give a presentation on Kafka to his Humanities class?  Do I even have to answer that?

Which is why I am currently sitting here in a Kafka shirt, avoiding the demanding stare of my paper clipped Kafka thesis, killing time before my Kafka presentation.

But despite the fact that I’m pretty sure Kafka has been popping up in my dreams, I remember that this is what I love about Jesuit education—the connections.  At a small Jesuit school like Rockhurst, everything is interrelated.  We are wrapping up Greek Week and Social Justice Week, and at times the two became indistinguishable as organizations collected cans for a local food pantry, raised money for their philanthropies, or participated in a fair trade fashion show. 

Jesuits have the core value “finding God in all things,” which is why you find things like Lumberjack Retreat or Tai Chi prayer services at Rockhurst—because everything can be connected and traced back to this root. 

Call me a nerd, but I guess I love Jesuit education because you learn to see those connections—between my thesis and supplemental instruction, between all of my activities and God, between what I do each day and how it could better the world around me.

Throwback to Kafka Museum in Prague

Greek Week Champs 2013!