How does that work??

It was a puzzling sensation, really.

My first reaction was a kind of exasperation at having so much asked of me: come to class each week with a paper detailing my thoughts/feelings related to the assigned reading (invariably related to something of real importance to me, since the entire Women’s Studies class is something of real importance to me) and come ready to have a class discussion.

You mean, don’t just memorize and spout dates and names? Don’t express only the ideas given to me, but develop and share my own? So, you don’t want me to just show up and fill a seat but truly engage with the subject and the world around me and bring my full self to this space and time? That’s a requirement??

I am so unused to such a thing. My real self is hidden away in my most “official” situations. I send forth a partiality and it isn’t even noticed, really. In fact, it’s likely welcomed/expected; no one really wants to hear my opinion at work.

But here, already in the first day of class, you want to know what I think, what I’ve noticed, how I feel. And because this is a topic I care about, having these conversations will actually be meaningful to me. The things I’ve already read and my real world observations and theories will come to bear, here. And you’re going to give me credits, a real sort of currency for all of this.

What? How does that work??